Norwegian battery materials maker Vianode is committing $3.2 billion to a synthetic graphite plant in St. Thomas, Ontario, pairing that outlay with a stack of Canadian and European public financing and plans to ramp employment from 300 to as many as 1,000 jobs.
Ontario will support the project with a $670 million loan, complementing previously announced federal backing that includes a letter of interest from Export Development Canada for up to $500 million and a separate letter of interest from the Canada Infrastructure Bank, whose potential contribution remains undisclosed. The German government may add as much as $300 million in support, meaning identified Canadian and German public financing could reach up to $1.47 billion if all indicated commitments are finalized, excluding any CIB amounts.
The plant is designed for full production capacity of 150,000 tonnes of synthetic graphite per year, though Vianode plans an initial output of 35,000 tonnes annually when operations start in 2028. Synthetic graphite from the facility will target batteries, semiconductors, nuclear reactors, steel and defence and aerospace applications, sectors that the company notes are seeing rising demand.
At full scale, the St. Thomas site is expected to support up to 1,000 jobs, building from around 300 positions at the outset. Vianode has already completed front-end engineering designs and says the decision to locate in Ontario followed a years long due diligence process that predated the current trade dispute between Canada and the US.
Being located inside Ontario’s so called “Automotive Alley” was a primary factor in selecting the site, according to spokesperson Caroline Schmailzl, who highlighted proximity to customers and access to clean power. St. Thomas is roughly midway between Windsor, the traditional centre of Canada’s auto sector, and Oshawa, another major automotive hub, and sits beside Volkswagen AG’s PowerCo Canada Inc unit, which is already pouring foundations for a large battery cell plant.
Vianode also has an offtake relationship with General Motors, which until last month produced electric delivery vans in nearby Ingersoll. GM has halted van output because of weak sales and is now in discussions with workers and governments about future options for the facility.
Producing synthetic rather than mined graphite requires heating feedstock materials to extremely high temperatures, which drives very high electricity demand. Vianode says its processes cut carbon emissions by 90 per cent compared with industry norms for synthetic graphite, and it cited Ontario’s grid mix, with nearly 90 per cent of power coming from nuclear, hydro, wind, solar and biofuels, as a key draw for the project.
Graphite’s designation as a critical mineral in both Canada and the US has left the material relatively insulated from cross border trade frictions, even as broader tensions escalate.
“North American supply chains are heavily reliant on graphite sourced from China,” chief executive Burkhard Straube said in October, calling the St. Thomas project “a key building block” that lines up with recent trade policy shifts.
Vianode already operates two smaller synthetic graphite anode facilities in Norway that entered service in 2021 and 2024. The St. Thomas project scales that experience into North America with a capital program measured in the billions, layered on top of Volkswagen’s battery cell plant and other regional EV investments and designed to deliver 150,000 tonnes of graphite capacity anchored in low carbon power.
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