Japan to increase its global battery production share, compete China & South Korea – calls for U$24 bln investment
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Japan needs more than US $24 billion in public and private sector investment to develop a competitive manufacturing base for batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage.
The Ministry has been tasked to Japan’s reknown politician “NISHIMURA Yasutoshi” who held his first press conference on . He stated he would fulfill his responsibilities in light of Prime Minister Kishida’s instructions, e.g. reconstruction of Fukushima, a full response to the price hike and the COVID-19, and implementing “new capitalism”.
Minister NISHIMURA Yasutoshi holds first press conference.
He stated he would fulfill his responsibilities in light of Prime Minister Kishida's instructions, e.g. reconstruction of Fukushima, a full response to the price hike and the COVID-19, and implementing "new capitalism" pic.twitter.com/Xl4L1fIreV— METI, Japan (@METI_JPN) August 10, 2022
A group of specialists tasked with formulating a battery strategy has also set a target of securing 30,000 trained workers in battery manufacturing and supply chains by 2030, the economy minister of Trade and Industry said.
“The government will be in the forefront and mobilise all its measures to achieve the strategy’s goals, but we can’t achieve this goal without the efforts of the private sector,” said industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura at the end of a panel meeting, calling for close cooperation. The panel has already set targets for a domestic production capacity of EV and energy storage batteries at 150-gigawatt hours (GWh) by 2030 and the global capacity of Japanese makers at 600 GWh. It has also called for full-scale commercialization of all-solid-state batteries by around 2030.
It added to those April-announced targets on Wednesday with the recruitment and 3.4 trillion yen (U$24.55 billion) investment goals.
The ministry also said on Wednesday the government’s support would extend to Japanese companies buying coal mines used in batteries and strengthening alliances with resource-rich countries like Australia, Africa and South America.
The demand for minerals such as nickel, lithium and cobalt will increase dramatically over the next few decades as they become essential for more environmentally friendly technology.
For the annual production of 600 GWh of batteries in 2030, the government expects to need about 380,000 tons of lithium, 310,000 tons of nickel, 60,000 tons of cobalt, 600,000 tons of graphite and 50,000 tons of manganese.
The ministry said that batteries are central to the government’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, as they are essential for the electrification of mobility devices and to boost the use of renewable energy.