Automaker Ford has undertaken preparatory work to build a cathode factory in Bécancour, TVA Nouvelles has learned.
Ford’s establishment in the region has not been officially announced, but two sources have indicated that the manufacturer will settle on a huge piece of land north of Highway 30, where deforestation has begun.
The factory projected by the American company, in partnership with two South Korean companies, would represent an investment of $1 billion, has it been possible to read in various articles in recent months.
“You will understand that I cannot confirm. I can’t announce, but obviously there is a lot of interest by a lot of companies for the industrial park. It is possible that we authorize advancement work on the land, but it is really too early to make announcements, “said the CAQ MP for Nicolet-Bécancour, Donald Martel.
Same silence for Investissement Québec, which “will not issue any comment with this file”, we said via a written communication.
The Bécancour Industrial and Port Park Company was no more talkative. “The Minister [de l’Économie et de l’Innovation] Pierre Fitzgibbon has already said that he will have announcements to make in the coming months”, at most suggested CEO Donald Olivier.
Ford will be a sixth player in the battery sector in Bécancour alongside GM-Posco, Nemaska Lithium, BASF, Nouveau Monde Graphite and most likely the Brazilian Vale, which is active in nickel processing.
Suddenly, activity in the Bécancour industrial park reached boiling point.
“You know, it’s an industrial park. We often forgot it in passing. All you might see were plantations of trees. One day, we knew it was going to develop, but how was it going to develop? We did not know and there, the battery sector [est arrivée]. The government has taken a direction,” observed the prefect of the MRC de Bécancour. Mario Lyonnais.
