On May 25, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt visited Vianode, a sustainable battery material manufacturer of Bluestar Elkem in Kristiansand, Norway, expressing their appreciation for Elkem’s efforts in new energy batteries and its contribution to green, low-carbon and environmental undertakings across the globe.

Founded in 2020, Vianode serves as a subsidiary of Bluestar Elkem for developing and producing sustainable, high-quality battery materials. It aims to improve battery performance as the ultimate goal to meet the burgeoning demand of the electric vehicle market. Vianode has developed a range of synthetic graphite materials for batteries by relying on Bluestar Elkem's extensive experience in advanced materials solutions and internal R&D resources. Consuming less energy, such products are manufactured with high-temperature processes and a closed-loop production system. It uses renewable energy and has significantly lower CO2 emissions in production than existing common types of materials, serving as a pillar of Vianode leading the development of battery and automobile manufacturing.

Vianode plans to build the phase-I plant project in Norway Her?ya Industrial Park. After reaching certain production, the plant will be able to produce graphite for over 1 million EVs annually, contributing significantly to the European battery value chain.

“As the current market for battery materials is growing exponentially, developing a sustainable value chain is crucial to the green transition,” said Helge Aasen, CEO of Bluestar Elkem. “As one of the world’s leading centers of the automobile industry, Germany is one of the main markets for Bluestar Elkem and Vianode. It is believed that the visit of the foreign ministers of Germany and Norway will be beneficial to our in-depth dialogue with auto players on building the European battery industry and jointly boosting the sustainable development of the battery materials market.”