In the United States, the Chapter 11 process is underway to save Northvolt. The company searches with light and lantern for new investors with plenty of money that wants and can take over.
Shareholders confirm for SVT News that they are happy to see investors with battery expertise as it has been one of Northvolt’s biggest problems. This is why many assessors believe that a Chinese car or battery company is the most likely solution.
This is where the new law from December 2023 comes in. The law means that all foreign investments in sensitive Swedish operations must be approved by the Inspection for Strategic Products (ISP).
-You want to prevent harmful impact on Sweden’s security, says Lars-Göran Larsson, Head of Unit at ISP.
Potential security threats
The ISP is clear that the law was created because it was not good that Sweden has let in too large investments from some countries. The unit manager does not want to point out individual countries, but the fact that both the defense and Säpo point out Russia, Iran and China and potential security threats for Sweden is something ISP should take great account of their decisions.
The fact that Chinese Geely bought the entire Volvo and that China companies build sensitive operations such as wind farms is something that happened before the new law came into force in December 2023.
– It is not certain that they would have been approved today, you can only speculate that, says Lars Göran Larsson.
Over a thousand cases
ISP will review investments in designated areas, including defense equipment, operations with sensitive personal data, socially important activities such as infrastructure, critical minerals, and “emerging technologies”. There, the regulations specifically mention both batteries and parts for batteries.
Last year, the authority received a total of 1,263 cases. Most people passed without deeper analysis, but 5 first received strict conditions for the investment, and a case was completely stopped.
This was the case for the Chinese company PTL, which had long planned plans for an anodes for batteries in Timrå. There it was no.