Eramet announced on Thursday that it was suspending its project for a battery recycling plant in Dunkirk (northern France), as the conditions for its development are not in place given the current state of the European market.

The French mining group, which was also presenting its quarterly results, decided to suspend the project "in the absence of a ramp-up of battery and component factories in Europe".

"(...) there are currently major uncertainties, both in terms of raw material supplies for the plant, and in terms of outlets for metal salts from recycling", it added in a press release.

According to Eramet CEO Christel Bories, "the value chain in Europe is having great difficulty getting off the ground".

"There are no manufacturers of cathode precursors in Europe", she told journalists during a call on the results.

The automotive sector is witnessing a slowdown in demand for electric vehicles after several years of growth, and is facing stiff competition from China.

In September, Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt had to suspend production of cathode-active materials at its Northvolt Ett "gigafactory" in northern Sweden, due to the state of the sector.

For Christel Bories, "it doesn't make sense to recycle products in Europe in order to sell them in Asia".

Questioned by franceinfo about the suspension of Eramet's project, the French Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, reassured the audience that the project had not been abandoned, only suspended.

Eramet also announced on Thursday that it had bought out its Chinese partner Tsingshan's entire minority stake (49.9%) in Eramine Sudamerica, a lithium carbonate plant in Argentina.

(Written by Kate Entringer, with Gus Trompiz, edited by Blandine Hénault)