LG Energy Solution and Toyota Tsusho to Establish Battery Recycling Joint Venture in the US

Pre-processing Plant in North Carolina to Break Ground This Year, Full-scale Operation Set for 2026
Annual Capacity of 13,500 Tons
First Recycling Joint Venture with a Major Automaker Group

LG Energy Solution is partnering with Toyota Tsusho Corp., the trading arm of Japan's Toyota Group, to establish a battery recycling joint venture in the United States.

From the left, Toshimitsu Imai, CEO of Toyota Tsusho; Masaharu Katayama, COO; Changbeom Kang, Executive Vice President and CSO of LG Energy Solution; Dongmyung Kim, CEO and President. Provided by LG Energy Solution.

LG Energy Solution and Toyota Tsusho recently held a signing ceremony for their "Battery Recycling Joint Venture Agreement" and announced on June 19 that they have agreed to establish a battery recycling joint venture, Green Metals Battery Innovations, LLC (GMBI), in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The new joint venture, GMBI, will be a specialized pre-processing plant that safely crushes and pulverizes used batteries and process scrap generated during battery manufacturing to produce "black mass."

GMBI will have an annual processing capacity of up to 13,500 tons, which is enough to handle used batteries and scrap from more than 40,000 electric vehicles per year. Construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year, with full-scale operations set to start in 2026.

GMBI plans to produce black mass using process scrap generated during the production of batteries for Toyota at LG Energy Solution's U.S. plants, as well as used batteries and scrap collected by Toyota Tsusho in North America. The black mass produced will then undergo a separate post-processing step to extract metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. These metals will be used in cathode material and battery manufacturing processes, ultimately being recycled back into batteries for Toyota electric vehicles.

Toyota Tsusho is actively expanding its recycling infrastructure in the North American market, leveraging industry-leading pre-processing technology and operational expertise. Through this, the company expects to establish a stable raw material supply chain.

Through this collaboration, the two companies plan to accelerate the establishment of a "resource circulation system" in North America that organically connects the entire process from battery production to recycling. In particular, they expect to enhance customer value by contributing to Toyota's circular economy vision.

Changbeom Kang, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of LG Energy Solution, stated, "With the establishment of GMBI, we have secured a stable supply chain for key battery raw materials and further strengthened our competitiveness in the North American recycling business. Based on our differentiated technological capabilities and customer value expertise, we will lead the North American recycling market."