Infyos CEO and co-founder Sarah Montgomery and head of sustainability Jeff Williamson discussed the findings and significance for the industry with Energy-Storage.news. The company provides a platform to show its research and allow suppliers and customers to record mitigating actions.
The company didn’t name which lithium-ion original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) it has specifically identified with the risks, but pointed to the recent calls by Republican lawmakers in the US to immediately block shipments of batteries from China-based firms CATL and Gotion.
CATL declined to comment further to previous denials of forced labour in its supply chains, while other companies contacted did not respond to a request for comment, though this week has some public holidays in both China and South Korea.
Infyos said that most of the allegations of severe human rights abuses involve companies mining and refining raw materials in China, mainly the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which are then used in batteries. The Republican lawmakers alleged “deep” supply chain links between CATL and Gotion to “the most troubling Chinese organisations involved in the enslavement of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang”.
CATL, and another firm BYD, are generally touted as the two largest players with over 50% of the global market, followed by—in an order depending on the period—LG Energy Solution, Panasonic, Rept, Hithium, SK On, Samsung SDI, Gotion and CALB, all of which are based in either China or Korea.
A recent fire at a lithium-ion battery parts facility in South Korea operated by a company called Aricell saw 23 workers killed, mostly contract workers from abroad. Potential exploitative labour contracts in cases like those would be another risk that Infyos’ platform identifies, Montgomery said.
The supply chain abuses and lack of visibility identified by Infyos could be in breach of the EU Batteries Regulation’s supply chain requirements, which are to come in from August next year, and the US’ Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA, covered regularly by our colleagues at PV Tech).
In the US that could mean imports being blocked and impounded, which happened to US$1.4 billion worth of lithium-ion products last year. In the EU, products that do not comply could also be blocked from the market and projects using these products could be stripped of their operational license if later found to contravene the rules.
Energy-Storage.news will be publishing the interview with Montgomery and Williamson next week, in which the pair go into more details on the findings, what they mean for companies wanting to sell into the EU and US markets, and what the industry response looks like.
