The groundbreaking for the project commenced in July 2024.

Photo courtesy of Lotte Biologics

Seoul-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Lotte Biologics has begun construction of a new $3.3 billion bio plant located at the Songdo Bio Campus in Incheon, South Korea. The investment will establish three facilities on the company’s over 2.1 million-sq.-ft. site. Work starts with bio plant 1, a mammalian cell culture facility which will introduce the initial 120,000 liters of production capacity, scaling to 360,000 liters upon completion of additional facilities. “The journey of Lotte Biologics, commencing here in Songdo, is poised not only to become a future growth engine for Lotte Group but also to reshape Korea's biotech industry landscape,” said Lotte Chairman Dong-Bin Shin. “Our unwavering commitment is to contribute significantly to the successful establishment of Songdo's bio cluster, thereby propelling Korea to the forefront of the global biotech arena.” For the company, the goal of this project is to position Lotte Biologics as a leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) by 2030. In total, this project will create 37,000 direct and indirect jobs in the region, the company says. In Site Selection’s March 2024 issue, aerotropolis expert Dr. John Kasarda and co-author Michael Chen said the Incheon region encompassing Songdo represents “a paragon of airport, airport city and aerotropolis development.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The Centenario Phase 1 facility will create 350 direct jobs.

Photo courtesy of Eramet

With initial production set to begin in November 2024, France-based mining company Eramet and China-based Tsingshan Holding Group have now opened the doors to their joint venture Centenario’s lithium carbonate production plant. The $870 million investment landed in Argentina’s Salta Province, aiming to extract lithium from salar brine in the region’s Centenario-Ratones deposit and process it into battery-grade lithium carbonate, vital to the EV sector. Eramet stated that initial production at the site will be limited, scaling to 24,000 tons annually by mid-2025. Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology developed and tested over five years by Eramet produced a recovery rate of up to 90%, about 40% higher than traditional natural evaporation processes. “With the start of our first Centenario plant, Eramet will become a key global player in the sustainable production of lithium, a critical metal for the batteries of electric vehicles,” said Eramet CEO Christel Bories. “This inauguration confirms our technological and sustainable leadership across the entire lithium value chain, from exploration to extraction and processing.”

ADVERTISEMENT

AirTrunk will finish the last three phases of the previously announced six-phase expansion in the next
two years.

Photo courtesy of AirTrunk

In order to meet customer demand, data center operator AirTrunk now plans to expand its seven-year-old site located in West Melbourne, Australia. With $706 million in hand, the company will complete the final three phases of MEL1, positioned on the nearly 22-acre site. Once complete, the expansion will introduce an additional 100 megawatts (MW) of capacity. With a total capacity of 185MW, this data center will represent one of the largest and most connected data centers on the continent. It is undisclosed how many new jobs will be created as a result of this project but it is expected to create more than 1,000 construction jobs.

Reports compiled and written by Alexis Elmore, edited by Adam Bruns