Closing of the joint venture agreement and the launch of operations for the newly formed company is expected to take place by the end of February 2015.

The new venture will have a direct employee base of approximately 80, and an annual combined production capacity for cathode active materials and their precursors of approximately 18,000 metric tons. It will maintain a headquarters facility in Tokyo, with production sites in Sanyo Onoda and Kitakyushu/Japan.

Among their various materials products, both companies are licensees of Argonne National Laboratory materials. BASF is the only company worldwide licensed to produce and market materials developed by both Argonne—the leader in NCM (Nickel Cobalt Manganese) technology—and LiFePO₄+C Licensing, the leader in LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) technology.

BASF’s joint venture with Toda Kogyo Corp. will allow us to accelerate our growth and expansion in the global battery materials market, in line with our long-term targets. By combining our manufacturing and technology expertise, we can serve our customers with the broadest cathode materials portfolio in the industry, while continuing to innovate for the future.

—Kenneth Lane, President of BASF’s Catalysts division

Because the lithium-ion battery market continues to expand globally, we concluded that we need a strong alliance partner that would enable us to create more value than simple consolidation and to advance our cathode materials business synergistically. By forming a joint venture, we are confident that we will be able to strengthen safety, quality, cost competitiveness and global coverage and provide these key factors to the market to drive our joint success in this industry.

—Tadashi Kubota, Chairman of Toda Kogyo Corp.