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Swedish company Northvolt subsidiary files for bankruptcy

The entrance to Northvolt, the new EV battery plant being built by the Swedish manufacturer in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, east of Montreal, Que.,Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Christinne Muschi, The Canadian Press) The entrance to Northvolt, the new EV battery plant being built by the Swedish manufacturer in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, east of Montreal, Que.,Thursday, May 16, 2024. (Christinne Muschi, The Canadian Press)
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Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt said on Tuesday that one of its entities had filed for bankruptcy with a Stockholm court due to its financial situation.

The filing concerns the subsidiary Ett Expansion AB.

It follows the announcement last September of the suspension of an expansion project in Skelleftea, Sweden, as part of a restructuring of Northvolt's Swedish operations.

The subsidiary is managing the construction project, but has no direct employees.

All expansion work has since been suspended, the company said in a statement.

"All contact with Ett Expansion AB will now be handled by the trustee in bankruptcy. The Northvolt Group continues to engage with stakeholders for continued cooperation in the ongoing operations of the Northvolt Group," the company said.

It added that the bankruptcy petition did not affect any of the company's other legal entities.

In September, Northvolt announced the dismissal of 1,600 employees in Sweden, one-fifth of its workforce, illustrating the financial difficulties facing the company.

The company had also announced that it was pausing its cathode activities at its Skelleftea plant and abandoning its cathode manufacturing project in Borlange, also in Sweden.

Northvolt did, however, confirm that it was maintaining its commitment to build a cell plant on Montreal's South Shore.

However, the shape and timetable of the $7 billion project, in which Quebec and Ottawa have committed to investing $2.4 billion, could be revised as a result of Northvolt's new strategic direction.

The company said on Tuesday that it wanted to focus "its resources on accelerating large-scale cell production in the first fully-built phase of Northvolt Ett and on meeting its commitments to its automotive customers."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 8, 2024. 

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