" A consortium of Ford Motor Co (F.N) and South Korean companies on Thursday said they would build a C$1.2 billion ($887 million)plant to produce electric vehicle (EVs) battery materials in Becancour, Quebec, a town seeking to become an EV-supply-chain hub, Canada’s industry ministry said."
“This is the latest in a series of construction announcements for Becancour, a town of fewer than 15,000 people on the St. Lawrence River that is shaping up to be an EV-supply-chain hub in North America.”
" “This is a big vote of confidence in the (EV) ecosystem we’ve been building,” Canada industry minister Francois-Philippe Champagne told Reuters. “This is very significant for Quebec, because as you know the auto sector has been primarily investing in Ontario, but now we have GM, now we have Ford in Becancour.”
General Motors Co (GM.N) and South Korea’s POSCO Future M in May said they would increase production capacity at a chemical battery materials facility whose construction was first announced last year. Germany’s BASF SE (BASFn.DE) is also building a battery materials factory there."
Without digging too much to find MATERIALS, here’s something that implies your answer:
“The IRA requires that an applicable percentage of the battery components must be completed in North America. The applicable percentage requirement is as follows: 2023: 50 percent; 2024: 60 percent; 2026: 70 percent; 2028: 90 percent; and 2029 and every year after: 100 percent .”
Recall, some years ago, Toyota announced it was building a new plant in Canada, rather than in the USian south, where it has existing plants. Toyota cited two reasons: Canadians can actually read, and the Socialistical health care system saves the company a fortune.
Besides, as we know, Canadians are a bunch of woke Commies, that probably out-incentivize Shiny-land.
/sarcasm
Since this is the case, we should see all the auto companies start relocating plants to Canada. I wonder if an auto worker at a typical autoworker wage can afford housing in Canadian cities? All my Canadian friends, literally all, have been telling me that housing prices are out of control there for the last decade or more in some places.
I’m pretty sure that American cities aren’t any more affordable for workers than
Canadian cities.
Canadian housing is out of control in places like Toronto, Vancouver, maybe Montreal, Halifax?
You wouldn’t build an auto plant in New York, Chicago, San Francisco etc. either.
But Canadian cities like Winnipeg, Edmonton, Saint John NB etc. are relatively affordable.
In St. Louis all three auto companies had plants. The Chevy plant was in north St. Louis from the '20s. It closed. GM built a new plant about 1980 in St. Charles County, the town of Wentzville about 40 miles away. They are doing very well.
That is far enough from the city, beyond even far suburbs. But still easily accessible by workers in the area. One of the largest employers in the area. And its easy to live out there in modest priced home and still commute for city services–Cardinals, Blues, and now soccer.
It works pretty well. And its easy to live in a rural area if you like. Weekend farmer. Horses. etc etc. Or you can live in the suburbs. Lots of choices.
The skillset difference in Canada vs US is astounding for similar work positions. With 3 plants in CA, I can see the stark difference everyday, in every interaction.
It helps that 60% of our new hires are UKRAINIAN. Every single one of them has serious trade and technology skills that make learning the job and adding value quite a bit simpler in comparison to the new hire who walks into the Georgia plant from the donut shop down the street in Augusta, GA.
The Ukrainian refugees with the highest skills are the ones that make it to Canada, USA, western Europe, etc. And once a year or two goes by, they aren’t likely to ever return.
The Ukrainian refugees with lower skills stay closer in various parts of eastern Europe. They are more likely to return home someday.
But this dynamic almost ensures that Ukraine will be a “ruined” state for quite some time regardless of how much money is poured into it. That’s because lower skilled people generally have much less success than higher skilled people. The same applies to other countries that experience “brain drain” to western, freer, countries.
Unfortunately for Ukraine it suffers from brain drain. After Chavez took over in Venezuela most of the white collar and management types at PDVSA, the national oil company, left the country. Many if not most of these people learned their trade at the expropriated private oil companies that developed the industry. Result, Venezuela has a hard time getting the oil out of the ground.