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By Park Jae-hyuk

A growing number of Korean companies have chosen Canada as the outpost for their expansions in the North American electric vehicle (EV) battery market, according to industry officials, Tuesday.

The latest example is LG Energy Solution (LGES).

Bloomberg reported last Friday that the Korean battery maker will make an official announcement this Wednesday, regarding the plan for its joint venture with Stellantis to build a factory in the eastern province of Ontario.

LGES and Stellantis announced last October that their joint venture will build a North American factory with an annual capacity of 40 gigatwatt-hours.

They are now scouting sites for the construction of the new factory.

Ontario has been viewed by many as a reasonable option, considering the fact that a number of global carmakers have their production facilities there and it neighbors the U.S. state of Michigan, where both LGES and Stellantis have their plants.

Although the two companies have declined to comment on this issue, Ontario's Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Vic Fedeli told Bloomberg that he "is confident the province will land at least one EV battery manufacturing plant before the election in June."

Earlier this year, POSCO Chemical and Solus Advanced Materials also unveiled their plans to invest in the Canadian EV battery market.

The former will build a cathode materials factory for its joint venture with GM in Becancour, Quebec.

"Canada is playing an important role in our all-electric future, and we are grateful for the strong support we have received from local and provincial and national officials to grow a North American-focused EV value chain," GM Executive Vice President Doug Parks said on March 8.

Solus Advanced Materials plans to start construction in July of its factory in Granby, Quebec, to annually produce 60,000 tons of copper foil, one of the core materials used in EV batteries.

Last November, the battery materials company purchased a plot of land for the factory's construction, becoming the first Korean copper foil producer to have officially commenced procedures to enter the North American market.

It seeks to capitalize on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which will enable the company's products to be exported to the U.S., Mexico and Europe without tariffs.

According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), the Canadian government has made various efforts recently to attract global EV battery firms with the aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

In Korea, Canadian diplomats have been in frequent attendance at the annual InterBattery event in Seoul, Korea's only exhibition dealing with the rechargeable battery industry.

Industry officials said that Canada's lower labor costs compared to the U.S. and its huge reserves of raw materials are also attractive to Korean battery firms.