Fedeli did not share battery component companies during three days of talks in South Korea, but said his team had “very successful initial meetings” with three potential investors, with LGES advising the province to call ahead of the trip. Was. The battery cell maker provided further clues to the province moving forward during meetings in Seoul.
“We have our work cut out in order to convert those leads into productive sales calls in the future, and hopefully into additional companies to be found in Ontario.”
In June, South Korea’s Dongshin Motec Ltd. announced plans to build a $60 million plant in Windsor that would manufacture aluminum casings for batteries manufactured at the nearby Stelantis/LGES plant, officially known as Nextstar Energy Inc. known as.
Fedeli said the province is working on adding other such suppliers to Ontario’s battery ecosystem, though he had no concrete deal to announce after leaving Seoul.
“We are very encouraged by the sales calls we have. We expect these to turn into deals in the coming weeks and months.
The Ontario government’s economic development team also met with Samsung SDI Company during the visit, projecting the province as a destination for investment from the company that manufactures batteries for both consumer electronics and electric vehicles.
Fedelli did not meet with Kia or Hyundai as part of the journey.
“We will continue to work with global automakers, but this was really focusing on electric vehicle batteries and components.”
Fedeli flew to Tokyo on 7 September and will hold three-day meetings with automakers and battery makers before returning to Canada on September 10.
Meetings with Honda, Toyota and electronics maker Panasonic are on the book.