Established in 1999, the EU-Japan Business Round Table (BRT) brings together business leaders from the EU and Japan to foster communication; review factors affecting trade, investment and other forms of cooperation; and give a business perspective to issues of public policy. BASF has been a member of the BRT since its creation and feeds into the BRT’s work on life sciences, digital innovation and sustainable development. The EU-Japan Centre acts as Secretariat to the BRT.

Expansion of BASF majority-owned JV with TODA

In July, BASF and TODA KOGYO CORP. (TODA) announced an expansion of the production capacity of BASF TODA Battery Materials LLC’s Onoda site in Japan. BTBM is a BASF majority-owned joint venture with TODA formed in 2015. 
Construction will start in Q4 2022, with commercial production planned for the second half of 2024. By 2025, BTBM’s annual capacity for high nickel cathode active materials (CAM) will be 60,000 tons.

“BTBM today is a leader for high nickel CAM materials of superior quality and plays an important role in BASF’s global production network for battery materials,” said Dr. Peter Schuhmacher, President, Catalysts division at BASF. “This investment at the Onoda site, already one of the world’s largest calcination facilities for CAM, will support our customers’ ambitious growth plans in Japan and worldwide. We will introduce an innovative and proprietary new production process allowing highest throughput rate combined with consistent highest quality.”
Shigeru Takaragi, President of TODA KOGYO CORP., added, “With the further expansion of the Onoda site, we are supporting the Japanese government’s goal of strengthening the local supply chain. Together with BASF, we are combining and mobilizing resources to take full advantage of our synergies to respond to the fast-growing demand for lithium-ion batteries.”

The new expansion project has been selected by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a “Program for Promoting Investment in Japan to Strengthen Supply Chains” and has been granted subsidies.