The Mont-roig del Camp battery factory is at risk
In May 2022, Seoul announced the most significant industrial investment in Catalonia in the last twenty years: a battery component factory in Mont-roig del Camp. With €600 million and 500 direct jobs, the Korean company ILJIN (now LOTTE) intended to establish its first plant in Europe.
The project is now facing uncertainty. Several administrative appeals against the urban planning changes required to make it possible have jeopardized its viability. These actions are being promoted by groups opposed to the project.
ILJIN, now part of the LOTTE group, is one of the few companies in the world specializing in elecfoil, a high-precision copper foil key to the manufacture of batteries and semiconductors. With hundreds of patents and an extensive network of research centers, it is a leading supplier to giants such as LG, Samsung, CATL, and Volkswagen. The planned plant in Mont-roig would not only create skilled jobs but would also have a positive impact on the entire Catalan industrial value chain, boosting sectors such as automotive, machinery, and chemicals, strengthening the country's research and innovation ecosystem.
The arrival of this investment was no coincidence. The attraction process began in August 2021, amid fierce competition from other European regions. Hundreds of meetings were held between ILJIN and the Generalitat (Catalan Government) for months. In December, a technical team from South Korea visited Catalonia for three months to establish contacts with local suppliers and forge strategic alliances. One of the most notable was the agreement with SEAT to jointly participate in the PERTE automotive competition.
Mont-Roig, with an economy heavily focused on tourism and services, could diversify with this high-value, highly technological industrial project, featuring clean and environmentally friendly processes. This is a strategic investment for Catalonia and also for Europe, where batteries are key to decarbonization and the objectives of the European Green Deal.
Between 2021 and 2022, other significant industrial investments were made. Cases such as the Kronospan wooden counter factory in Tortosa (€400 million and 200 direct jobs) or the reindustrialization of the Nissan plant in Zona Franca have paved the way for a new production model: a clean, technologically advanced industry rooted in the region. A very different model from that represented by initiatives such as Hard Rock, with the largest casino in Europe, focused on mass tourism and the creation of precarious, low-value jobs.
The economic model of the future is being decided today, and this future depends on an industry that acts as a central pillar: a clean, technologically advanced industry rooted in the territory. It's necessary to generate scientific knowledge; it's necessary to transform it into technological capacity (know-how) and, above all, to materialize it locally (make it here). In a world divided into blocs, the key is no longer cost, but rather controlling high-value technology.
It is necessary to promote clusters of highly technological small and medium-sized businesses, well connected to major industries, universities, and research centers. This must also be done from a social perspective, since countries that are overly dependent on tourism or the financial sector tend to generate greater economic and territorial inequalities. However, an advanced industry can be a great ally for collective well-being.
Catalonia must be able to attract a clean, value-added industry that generates decent jobs, real opportunities, and allows young talent to stay and develop their life plans here. This type of implementation must be carried out with the utmost rigor and with profound respect for the environment. At the same risk, these same territories could opt out again, and Catalonia would lose a strategic opportunity that is difficult to recover.