CHARLOTTE – Albemarle once focused on paper. Now it’s poised to capitalize on the electrification of the motor vehicle industry and continuing growth of the cellphone industry thanks to its bet years ago on lithium.
So reports The Wall Street Journal.
” Albemarle is now the world’s most valuable lithium producer, with a stock-market capitalization of almost $23 billion. It is also the third-biggest producer of lithium chemicals used to make lithium-ion batteries,” The WSJ reports.
“All that makes the Charlotte, N.C.-based company, which started off in 1887 as a paper mill, a key cog in a tight global supply chain for battery metals used in electric cars, smartphones and other applications at a time when governments are pushing to electrify their economies.”
In December, Albemarle announced an expansion of 205 jobs at an average wage of more than $94,000.
The company struck a deal through the North Carolina Commerce Department’s Economic Investment Committee for the building of a new facility focused on innovations for next-generation lithium products, including lithium batteries – the technology driving many electric vehicles today and in the future.
Read the full story at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-onetime-paper-maker-is-now-the-king-of-lithium-99421b8c?mod=hp_featst_pos3 (Subscription may be required)
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