Toyota Tsusho Corporation (“Toyota Tsusho”) announced today that its U.S. subsidiary, Toyota Tsusho America, Inc.,  has reached an agreement with LG Energy Solution, a member of Korea’s LG Group, to establish Green Metals Battery Innovations, LLC (“GMBI”), a company that will engage in the reclamation of automotive battery scrap materials in North Carolina. 

In the United States, growth of the lithium-ion battery market is accelerating amid a rapid increase in demand for electrified vehicles and renewable energy. This surge is expected to lead to a substantial volume of end-of-life batteries and production scrap in the future, such as those generated in manufacturing processes. In addition, with heightened environmental awareness, a movement toward making the recovery and reuse of rare metals mandatory is accelerating globally, requiring companies to respond to these trends. 

LG Energy Solution is one of the world’s leading lithium-ion battery manufacturers, with strong capabilities in the production of automotive batteries. LG Energy Solution produces batteries in North America, Europe, China and other countries, and plans to have a production capacity of over 500 GWh in the future. North America represents its largest production hub, with eight plants, including one currently under construction. LG Energy Solution is also working to establish a closed-loop system by recycling and reusing scrap from the manufacturing process. 

For over half a century, Toyota Tsusho has been committed to building a “recycling-based society” through efforts including the recycling of scrap metal and the resource recovery of end-of-life vehicles. In 2023, the company also launched a lithium-ion battery recycling business in Japan. 

Green Metals Battery Innovations (GMBI) will operate a pre-processing business that shreds and sorts battery scrap to efficiently and reliably extract valuable metals including nickel, cobalt, and lithium. GMBI aims to build a supply chain that circulates these recovered materials into the production of new batteries. 

Going forward, GMBI plans to build a facility with an objective to achieve annual processing capacity of up to 13,500 tons of scrap, equivalent to more than 40,000 automotive battery units. Operations are scheduled to begin in 2026. The company will initially focus on extracting valuable metals from production scrap generated by LG Energy Solution and other battery manufacturers, with plans to expand into the processing of end-of-life batteries generated within the United States. 

Through this business, Toyota Tsusho aims to establish a solid business foundation for the processing of battery scrap in North America and realize a closed-loop system that returns recovered materials to the raw material supply for new batteries. 

Overview of GMBI

Overview of LG Energy Solution