Buenos Aires lithium battery pack

State company Y-TEC, the tech arm of YPF, will open the first lithium battery cell factory in September, in La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires province. Another plant, five times bigger, will kick off in Santiago del Estero in 2024.

The plant will generate 15 megawatts per year, which means it will produce lithium batteries capable of powering 2500 households. The batteries are envisaged for use in rural areas. For example, there is already a Buenos Aires province-backed project to supply the Paulino-Berisso island, home to 70 families who are currently off the power grid.

Four new projects will finally begin to churn out lithium in the weeks and months ahead, according to a yet-to-be released federal government time-line seen by Bloomberg News. That will almost double production capacity in Argentina, whose growth potential has long lured the attention of battery makers around the world.

A testament to this forward-thinking approach is the imminent launch of its premier lithium battery plant. This venture, realized in partnership with the U.S.-based Livent Corp, underscores Argentina's ambition to be a comprehensive player in the global lithium ecosystem.

That will almost double production capacity in Argentina, whose growth potential has long lured the attention of battery makers around the world. For all the money that's poured into Argentina's giant lithium deposits, the country has seen just one new mine come on stream in almost a decade. That's about to change.

In the case of lithium, Y-TEC signed a contract with American company Livent, which extracts the mineral in Catamarca and, for the first time, sold part of its production in Argentina. According to Salvarezza, for industrialization to grow in scale, part of the production ought to be sold on the local market.