Redwood's Bid to Localize Materials

Asian battery leaders are not just exporting cells into the U.S., they are moving the expensive middle of the supply chain, cathode and anode materials, closer to American car factories. That matters because battery materials are bulky, policy sensitive, and tightly linked to IRA sourcing rules. It turns North America from a sales market into a production base, and raises the bar for recyclers like Redwood to become full domestic material suppliers, not just scrap processors.

• LG Chem is the clearest example. It said cathode materials for GM would be produced at its Tennessee plant starting in 2026, with 60,000 tons of annual capacity. That means North American battery makers are localizing the highest value chemical step before cells are assembled.
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• GM and POSCO also set up a North American cathode active material plant to feed Ultium battery factories, showing this is broader than one Korean supplier. The pattern is integrated producers planting material conversion next to battery cell plants and auto assembly lines.
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• Redwood is competing from the opposite direction. Instead of starting with mined feedstock and building local plants outward, it starts with battery scrap and old packs, then refines that material into copper foil and cathode inputs in Nevada and South Carolina. That makes it both a recycler and a domestic materials manufacturer.
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The next phase is a race to own localized battery chemistry supply, from black mass and metal salts through cathode powder and copper foil. As more Asian incumbents build North American material plants, Redwood’s advantage will come from offering automakers a closed domestic loop that pairs recycling volume with new material output at gigafactory scale.