India’s largest electronics recycling agency Attero Recycling will spend $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,765 crore) within the subsequent 5 years and add crops in Poland, Ohio and Indonesia beginning this 12 months, its CEO advised Reuters, aiming to faucet into a world growth for electrical automobiles.
The World Financial institution-backed firm, whose shoppers embody Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor, additionally plans to arrange for an preliminary public providing in a couple of 12 months and record in India or the US within the subsequent three years, Nitin Gupta stated in an interview.
Attero’s aim is to lift its annual lithium-ion battery waste processing capability to 300,000 tonnes by 2027 from 11,000 tonnes now, he stated, assembly 15 p.c of the world’s demand for lithium, cobalt and graphite, from lower than 0.1 p.c at this time.
“Lithium-ion batteries have gotten ubiquitous in nature,” Gupta, who based Attero in 2008 together with his brother and made it worthwhile within the final two years, stated in an interview.
By recycling such batteries, Gupta stated they weren’t solely fixing a waste downside but in addition changing into “vital gamers within the materials provide chain by promoting inexperienced metals with out mining the earth”.
He stated half the price of an electrical automobile is the lithium-ion batteries, at the very least 35 p.c of whose value then comes from cobalt, nickel, lithium, graphite and manganese.
Attero’s extraction price is about 98 p.c and it makes use of chemical strategies as an alternative of the dearer smelting course of that melts sure metals past restoration, Gupta stated. Among the supplies it extracts go to Tesla Inc through Swiss mining group Glencore.
He stated Attero’s Poland manufacturing facility might be operational by the fourth quarter of 2022, in Ohio within the third quarter of 2023 and in Indonesia by the primary quarter of 2024. The investments might be primarily from inside accruals, Gupta added.
Its rivals embody Li-Cycle Holdings and Redwood Supplies however might additionally face competitors from established automakers like Nissan planning their very own battery recycling operations.
Attero employs about 150 individuals and plans so as to add 100 extra this 12 months, together with in Europe and the US. Gupta stated gross sales have been set to double this monetary 12 months to about 4.25 billion rupees ($55 million), however declined to share revenue projections.
© Thomson Reuters 2022