Business Facilities magazine recently named Chester County as one of the winners of their 2023 Deals of the Year awards. These awards showcase corporate relocation and expansion investments that are having or are expected to have a significant impact on the communities in which they are located.
Chester County was selected as one of the Deal of the Year Impact Award winners for EV Supplier/Chemical Processing for the Albemarle Corporation project. In March 2023, Albemarle Corporation announced their plans to invest $1.3 billion in capital investment and create 307 jobs to build a new lithium hydroxide processing plant.
“We worked with Global Location Strategies and Albemarle Corporation for eleven months prior to their announcement in March 2023,” Kris Phillips, assistant director of Chester County Economic Development, said. “This was one of the most challenging and rewarding projects of my career. I was most impressed by Albemarle’s commitment to the environment and involvement in the communities where they are located.”
All major automotive companies have announced their intention to phase out the internal combustion engine and shift to electric vehicles. This has led to massive investment in EV assembly plants and the EV supply chain both nationally and in South Carolina. Lithium hydroxide is a base ingredient for lithium-ion batteries. Completion of phase 1 of their Richburg plant is targeted for 2026 and expected to produce 50,000 metric tons of battery grade lithium hydroxide a year.
“We are delighted to be recognized as one of Business Facilities’ 2023 Deal of the Year Impact Award winners,” Robert Long, director of Chester County Economic Development, said. “The Albemarle Corporation project will truly make an impact on the domestic supply of lithium hydroxide that is greatly needed for the automotive sector to ramp up production of electric vehicles.”
Of the 24 winners, only two were from South Carolina. The Scout Motors project in Richland County was named the Silver Deal of the Year.
