Can Argentina start a battery industry?

The bill to develop the value chain of lithium and batteries, as it reads on the draft, hopes that Argentina can start by joining the industrialization of a few elements, such as cathodes and battery cells, and only then start producing batteries in the mid-term.

Where will lithium batteries be made in Buenos Aires?

State company Y-TEC, the tech arm of YPF, will open the first lithium battery cell factory in September, in La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires province. Another plant, five times bigger, will kick off in Santiago del Estero in 2024.

How many people can a lithium battery power Buenos Aires?

The plant will generate 15 megawatts per year, which means it will produce lithium batteries capable of powering 2500 households. The batteries are envisaged for use in rural areas. For example, there is already a Buenos Aires province-backed project to supply the Paulino-Berisso island, home to 70 families who are currently off the power grid.

Does y-TEC sell lithium in Argentina?

In the case of lithium, Y-TEC signed a contract with American company Livent, which extracts the mineral in Catamarca and, for the first time, sold part of its production in Argentina. According to Salvarezza, for industrialization to grow in scale, part of the production ought to be sold on the local market.

How much lithium will Argentina produce in 2022?

JPMorgan forecast in August 2022 that Argentina would go from supplying 6% of the world's lithium in 2021 to 16% by 2030, overtaking Chile as the No. 2 lithium producer in the world by 2027, behind only Australia.

How many new lithium mines are there in Argentina?

For all the money that’s poured into Argentina’s giant lithium deposits, the country has seen just one new mine come on stream in almost a decade. That’s about to change. Four new projects will finally begin to churn out lithium in the weeks and months ahead, according to a yet-to-be released federal government time-line seen by Bloomberg News.