From Tobias Gehrke's linkedin, Senior Policy Fellow for the...

From Tobias Gehrke's linkedin, Senior Policy Fellow for the European Council on Foreign Relations:

"Several stories are circulating in Swedish media about Northvolt's production problems and the link to Chinese suppliers.

Most of the machines in Northvolt’s plants come from the Chinese Wuxi Lead. According to some informants, they are of poor quality. Rumours of active manipulation are floating, but these have not been proven.

Another curious allegation is that the machines can only be serviced by the Chinese company and its staff, and this maintenance has been done poorly, leading to problems. In some way, this is exactly what is happening to some lithography machines in China, which can only be maintained by ASML, and that maintenance is now being curtailed.

If these economic warfare allegations seem too flimsy, remember that from 2020 to 2023, Northvolt's home Sweden was subject to Chinese export controls on graphite (a key battery material), whereas Chinese battery makers building plants in Hungary had no such problems. Earlier this year, the ban was lifted the day after Chinese SOE Putailai announced an anode production factory in Sweden, with Northvolt as its first customer.

Sweden’s business minister Ebba Busch made a curious statement last week, saying, “You could almost use the term 'industrial war’" and highlighted that China is "relying on extremely underhand business practices." "