ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President and COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today that it has concluded a service agreement with FREYR Battery (headquartered in Luxembourg; Tom Einar Jensen, CEO; hereinafter "FREYR”), a lithium-ion battery manufacturer, for the supply of materials for lithium-ion battery applications.
FREYR is one of the licensees of 24M Technologies^*1, ITOCHU’s equity-method affiliate in the United States that licenses SemiSolid lithium-ion batteries^*2. FREYR aims to realize environmentally friendly battery production using clean energy from hydroelectric power generation in Norway, an advanced decarbonized country.
FREYR plans to start mass-producing SemiSolid lithium-ion batteries at a scale of 50 GWh per year from 2025, and expects to produce more than 200 GWh per year by 2030 through building new plants in Finland and the United States.
ITOCHU will establish a stable procurement system for the main materials used by FREYR through the business alliance under this agreement, and will also collaborate with FREYR in the future to manufacture and sell battery materials, form a business alliance for the sale of FREYR's battery products, return recycled metal recovered from waste batteries to the supply chain, and establish a traceability system for FREYR's products.
ITOCHU will contribute to the realization of a decarbonized society and a decentralized energy society by improving the expertise in the battery business, which has been developed over the years, together with FREYR. Through the energy storage battery business, ITOCHU will continue to take on the challenge of creating new value and a new eco-system and circular economy beyond the boundaries of industries and products.