Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2667 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 3 December 2025, Export Finance Australia (EFA) disclosed a €120 million (~AU$196 million) loan commitment to Vulcan Energy Resources' Phase One Lionheart Project in Germany's Upper Rhine Valley, which will produce battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) from geothermal brine while co-generating renewable heat and power. The loan is part of a syndicated, multi-country export-credit package alongside Germany's KfW Raw Materials Fund, the European Investment Bank, Export Development Canada, Denmark's EIFO, France's Bpifrance Assurance Export, and Italy's SACE, financing a project with total capital cost of ~€2.193 billion (~AU$3.9 billion). Phase One targets 24,000 tonnes per annum of LHM, enough for roughly 500,000 electric vehicles.

On 3 December 2025 the European Commission adopted the RESourceEU Action Plan (COM(2025) 945 final), a horizontal critical-raw-materials supply-security instrument complementing the 2023 Critical Raw Materials Act. The plan mobilises €3 billion in EU funds within twelve months for priority CRM projects, creates a European Critical Raw Materials Centre operational from 2026 (modelled on Japan's JOGMEC) acting as portfolio manager for diversified supply chains, joint purchasing and stockpiling, and activates the Internal Market Emergency and Resilience Act (IMERA) "vigilance" and "emergency" modes from May 2026 with mandatory information requests, priority deliveries and coordinated stockpile distribution. A targeted CRMA amendment expands product labelling for permanent-magnet recycling and adds export controls on permanent-magnet and aluminium scrap. Targets a 30-50% reduction by 2029 in single-country dependency for battery, rare-earth and defence raw-material value chains.

On 3 December 2025 President Pedro Sánchez presented the Plan España Auto 2030, a five-year roadmap to mobilise EUR 30 bn (public + private) through 2030 to anchor electric-vehicle, battery and charging- infrastructure manufacturing in Spain. The plan is the first comprehensive Spanish auto-industrial policy of the post-COVID era and is structured as three immediate 2026 envelopes plus a multi-year PERTE-track: (i) Plan Auto+ — EUR 400 m in direct consumer-purchase subsidies effective 1 January 2026, replacing the autonomous-region- managed MOVES III with a centralised dealer-discount model run by MINCOTUR; (ii) MOVES Corredores — EUR 300 m for fast-charging-corridor deployment; and (iii) an additional EUR 580 m allocated to the PERTE VEC (Vehículo Eléctrico y Conectado) industrial-finance instrument in 2026, on top of the EUR ~3 bn already mobilised across previous PERTE VEC calls. The headline ambition is a sub-EUR 25,000 "affordable Spanish electric car" and 95% electrified light-vehicle production by 2035.

Portaria Normativa GM/MME nº 120/2025, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 14 November 2025 by the Ministério de Minas e Energia, regulates the Política de Debêntures para Projetos de Transformação de Minerais Estratégicos para a Transição Energética. It sets the eligibility criteria, classification methodology and project-approval pipeline (under Decreto 11.964/2024 and Leis 12.431/2011 and 14.801/2024) for tax-exempt incentivised debentures and infrastructure debentures financing the downstream transformation of cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths into battery and permanent-magnet inputs (lithium carbonate/hydroxide, cobalt sulfate, nickel sulfate, battery-grade copper foil, rare earth oxides/ chlorides/metals/alloys). MME estimates ~R$5.2 bn/year in unlocked private investment (R$3.7 bn transformation + R$1.5 bn mining/ beneficiation, with up to 49% of bond proceeds usable on linked upstream activities).

On 10 November 2025 the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the development-equity investment arm of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), announced a USD 75 million equity investment in Spiro, Africa's largest electric two-wheeler and battery-swapping operator. Spiro runs assembly plants and swap-station networks across Benin, Togo, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Rwanda, and the funding is earmarked to scale local manufacturing, expand battery-swapping infrastructure and push the fleet past 100,000 vehicles by end-2025. Afreximbank frames the deal as part of its automotive industrial-policy strategy to build integrated African manufacturing ecosystems and reduce the continent's reliance on imported (including secondhand) vehicles; Global Trade Alert separately logs the intervention as trade-distorting toward China, consistent with import substitution away from Chinese-made two-wheelers and secondhand imports.

Leclanché GmbH (a subsidiary of Swiss battery maker Leclanché SA) signed a EUR 74.2 million (USD ~83.6 million) grant agreement with CINEA, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, on 10 November 2025. The grant, awarded under the EU Innovation Fund's 2024 Battery call (IF24 Battery), funds the "Willstätt GigaFactory 2 GWh" (WGF2G) project — an expansion of Leclanché's existing German production site to 2 GWh of annual capacity using the company's proprietary water-based, PFAS-free lithium-ion cell manufacturing process. WGF2G was one of five projects (of six initially invited in July 2025, one of which withdrew) to complete grant preparation and sign, out of a combined EUR 643 million awarded across four EU member states under the IF24 Battery call.

The Asian Development Bank signed a USD 331 million financing package with ReNew Vyoman Power Private Limited, a subsidiary of Indian independent power producer ReNew, to fund an 837 MWp solar-wind hybrid plant paired with a 415 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Andhra Pradesh. ADB describes it as the first round-the-clock (24/7) peak renewable energy project it has financed, with the BESS enabling 300 MW of guaranteed baseload/peak delivery. Global Trade Alert logs the deal as a "red" (certainly harmful) state-linked lending intervention on the standard grounds that below-market multilateral development-bank financing to a named commercial producer is a potential trade- and competition-distorting subsidy.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and General Administration of Customs (GAC) issued Announcement No. 70 (2025) on November 7, 2025, suspending for one year the package of rare-earth export-control measures announced on October 9, 2025 (Announcements Nos. 55, 56, 57, 58, 61, 62). The suspended measures include the licensing regime on medium- and heavy-rare-earth elements, rare-earth processing equipment and technologies, lithium-battery and synthetic-graphite anode materials, superhard materials, and — most significantly — the extraterritorial "0.1% content" rule of Announcement No. 61 that asserted licence jurisdiction over foreign-made products containing Chinese-origin controlled rare earths. The gazette text fixes the window explicitly: "自即日起至2026年11月10日" (from the date of issue until November 10, 2026). This is the rare-earth leg of the post-Busan US-China truce; the dual-use leg (gallium, germanium, antimony, graphite) was suspended two days later by the separate Announcement No. 72 (2025), which runs to November 27, 2026. The two instruments create a two-step expiry cliff in November 2026.

On 6 November 2025, the US Department of the Interior (DOI) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) released the final 2025 List of Critical Minerals under the Energy Act of 2020 (30 U.S.C. § 1606), expanding the designation from 50 to 60 minerals. The final list adds 10 newly designated commodities — boron, copper, lead, metallurgical coal, phosphate, potash, rhenium, silicon, silver, and uranium — based on updated supply-chain disruption modelling, public comment, and interagency recommendations. The list constitutes the foundational statutory anchor for downstream US critical-minerals policy instruments including DPA Title III awards, DOE LPO Title 17 loan eligibility, IRA Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit eligibility, Section 30D FEOC determinations, BIS export-control predicate assessments, Section 232 trade-investigation predicates, and CFIUS critical-technology triggers under 31 CFR § 800.215.

The European Commission approved a EUR 90.8 million (USD ~104.4 million) Innovation Fund grant for LG Energy Solution Wrocław Limited Liability Company on 5 November 2025, funding the "46inEU — Powering the Future: 46 Cylinders, Infinite Possibilities in Europe" project at LG's existing Wrocław, Poland site. CINEA (the EU's Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency) lists 46inEU's status as "Grant signed" under the Innovation Fund's 2024 Battery call (IF24 Battery), which produces Li-ion NCMA (nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminium) cylindrical cells for electric vehicles. The grant is one of five signed under the IF24 Battery call's EUR 643 million cohort announced by CINEA on 10 November 2025.

The European Commission approved a EUR 200 million (USD ~230.3 million) Innovation Fund grant for Automotive Cells Company (ACC) on 3 November 2025, funding the "ACCEPT" (Automotive Cells Company European Production Take-off) project — five new Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) lithium-ion battery production lines with a combined 15.7 GWh annual capacity across ACC's two gigafactories at Billy-Berclau-Douvrin, France. ACCEPT was one of five EV battery-cell projects (alongside Verkor/AGATHE, LG Energy Solution/46inEU, Novo Energy/NOVO One, and Leclanché/WGF2G) confirmed under the EU Innovation Fund's 2024 Battery call, together worth EUR 643 million; grant agreements with CINEA were formally signed on 10 November 2025. At EUR 200 million, ACCEPT is the single largest award in the five-project cohort.

The European Commission's Innovation Fund, administered by CINEA, awarded French battery-cell maker Verkor a EUR 19.5 million grant under the Innovation Fund 2024 Battery call for its "AGATHE" (Advanced Gigafactory Aiming at Tempering greenhouse gases Emissions) project, which aims to double NMC cell production capacity at Verkor's Dunkirk gigafactory from 8 to 16 GWh using AI-driven manufacturing and an on-site pre-recycling facility targeting >95% scrap recovery. The award was one of five EV battery-cell projects (Verkor/AGATHE, Automotive Cells Company/ACCEPT, Novo Energy/NOVO One, Leclanché/WGF2G, LG Energy Solution/46inEU) confirmed under the same call, together worth EUR 643 million; grant agreements with CINEA were formally signed on 10 November 2025. Verkor-linked entities also received separate grants in the same call round: Giga Verkor Immo (EUR 38.1 million) and Rekovr (EUR 18.6 million), covering the factory real-estate and recycling arms respectively.

The European Commission approved a EUR 201.4 million (USD ~231.9 million) Innovation Fund grant for Novo Energy Production AB, funding the "NOVO One" gigafactory project in Gothenburg, Sweden, under the Innovation Fund 2024 Battery call (IF24 Battery). CINEA lists NOVO One's status as "Grant signed," one of five EV battery-cell projects (alongside ACCEPT and AGATHE in France, WGF2G in Germany, and 46inEU in Poland) confirmed under the same call, together worth EUR 643 million, with grant agreements formally signed on 10 November 2025. Novo Energy — originally a 50/50 joint venture between Volvo Cars and Northvolt targeting up to 50 GWh/year of NMC cell capacity — came under Volvo's full ownership in 2025 after Northvolt's bankruptcy left the venture without its battery-technology partner.

Natural Resources Canada's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Tim Hodgson, announced on 31 October 2025 conditional approval of up to CAD 14,062,500 (USD ~10.0M) in non-repayable federal funding for Focus Graphite Inc. under NRCan's Global Partnerships Initiative, part of the G7 Critical Minerals Action Plan's first tranche of 26 investments and partnerships. Focus Graphite executed the funding agreement on 8 December 2025. The grant covers approximately 73.6% of eligible project costs for a commercial-scale electrothermal fluidized-bed purification demonstration plant converting Quebec natural flake graphite (from the Lac Knife and Lac Tétépisca deposits) into ultra-high-purity battery-anode and advanced materials, with Focus Graphite contributing the remaining CAD 4.79M cash plus CAD 250K in-kind. Eligible expenditures run 14 October 2025 to 31 March 2028.

NIB, the multilateral development bank owned by the eight Nordic and Baltic member states, signed a EUR 27.7 million (USD 32.2 million) 10-year loan with Baltic Storage Platform OÜ, a joint venture of Evecon, Corsica Sole and Mirova, to finance two 100 MW/200 MWh standalone battery energy storage systems (Hertz 1 at Kiisa and Hertz 2 at Aruküla, both near Tallinn) with a combined 200 MW/400 MWh capacity — among the largest battery-storage complexes in continental Europe. The loan is disbursed under the EU's InvestEU programme via NIB's Framework on Clean Energy Transition, part of a EUR 85.6 million total financing package alongside the EBRD and Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management. NIB financing at preferential development-bank rates functions as a below-market state-backed subsidy to strategic domestic grid-storage infrastructure supporting Baltic energy independence and renewables integration.

At the APEC Busan summit on 30 October 2025, Presidents Trump and Xi reached the "Economic and Trade Arrangement Between the United States and the People's Republic of China," subsequently implemented on the US side by the executive order "Modifying Reciprocal Tariff Rates Consistent with the Economic and Trade Arrangement" (issued 4 November 2025; effective 12:01 am EST on 10 November 2025; published in the Federal Register on 7 November 2025 as 90 FR 50729 / 2025-19826) and on the Chinese side by a series of MOFCOM and State Council Tariff Commission announcements (notably MOFCOM 2025 No. 90 of 8–9 November 2025). The arrangement is structurally parallel to the already-filed US-Japan, US-Korea and US-Taiwan framework deals but uniquely material because it freezes the highest-stakes bilateral tariff and export-control confrontation of the post-2024 reset. Core US commitments: (i) reciprocal-tariff "additional ad valorem rate of duty" on PRC-origin goods reduced from a prior 20% IEEPA-fentanyl + 10% IEEPA-reciprocal stack to a 10% rate (i.e., the prior 24% / 34% scheduled escalation is suspended), extended through 10 November 2026; (ii) US BIS suspends the so-called "affiliates rule" expanding entity-list controls to majority-owned subsidiaries of listed Chinese firms; (iii) USTR pauses Section 301 maritime / shipbuilding / logistics countermeasures against Chinese vessels for one year. Core PRC commitments: (i) MOFCOM suspends for one year (until 10 November 2026) the 9 October 2025 extraterritorial rare-earth export-control package — including controls on REE processing equipment, lithium-battery manufacturing equipment, and superhard materials; (ii) PRC suspends retaliatory tariffs on a broad swath of US agricultural products through 31 December 2026; (iii) commitment to purchase ≥25 million metric tonnes of US soybeans annually in 2026-2028 and to resume sorghum and log imports; (iv) suspension of MOFCOM antitrust and "unreliable-entity" probes against named US semiconductor and chip-equipment companies; (v) cooperation on fentanyl precursor enforcement. The arrangement does not repeal underlying authorities (IEEPA tariffs, MOFCOM export-control list, Entity List) — it is a calibrated mutual freeze with a one-year sunset and quarterly review checkpoints.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed loan agreements on 2025-10-27 providing project financing of up to USD 253 million for the ACWA Power Sazagan Solar1 project and up to USD 382 million for the ACWA Power Sazagan Solar2 project in Samarkand region, Uzbekistan — a combined USD 635 million, JBIC's first renewable-energy loans in the country. The two projects deliver 1,000 MW combined solar generation and 1,336 MWh of battery storage, with all output sold to JSC National Electric Grid of Uzbekistan under 25-year power purchase agreements. Three Japanese companies (Sumitomo Corporation, Chubu Electric Power, Shikoku Electric Power) hold equity stakes in the project vehicles alongside Saudi developer ACWA Power, and JBIC co-financed alongside ADB, EBRD, the Islamic Development Bank, SMBC, Norinchukin Bank, Standard Chartered and KfW IPEX-Bank.

South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR) announced the 2026–2030 Basic Plan for Strengthening the Materials, Parts & Equipment (MPE / 소부장) Industry on 24 October 2025, succeeding the 2020–2025 MPE Basic Plan born from the 2019 Japan export shock. The new five-year plan targets three pillars — innovation, market, and ecosystem — to cut import dependence on 100+ strategic materials, components, and equipment items underpinning Korea's semiconductor, display, battery, and advanced-manufacturing sectors. Key instruments include ten additional MPE Specialized Clusters, 15 "Super Eul" world- leading technology projects, five AI New Materials projects, and KRW 35 billion in joint R&D funding; full annual appropriations flow through the government budget cycle.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) awarded a AUD 25 million grant to Melbourne battery-technology startup Relectrify to fast-track commercial deployment of its "AC1" battery energy storage system (BESS), a world-first design that eliminates the separate inverter by using a cell-level battery management system to produce AC power directly. The funding supports up to 100 MWh of AC1 deployments targeting commercial, industrial and small front-of-meter markets, generating operational performance data and reference installations, and builds on ARENA's earlier support for Relectrify's second-life EV-battery work.

On 21 October 2025, Mexico's state-owned foreign-trade development bank Bancomext and private bank Multiva formalised a MXN 2.13 billion (~USD 106 million) syndicated 15-year green loan to Energía Real, split in equal MXN 1.065 billion tranches, to finance roughly 500 distributed-generation projects combining on-site solar power and battery energy storage systems (BESS). The financing is intended to add at least 150 MW of installed capacity to Energía Real's existing ~200 MW portfolio — the largest such portfolio in Mexico. Bancomext's participation at development-bank terms functions as a state-backed subsidy to a private renewable-energy and storage operator, part of the broader global pattern of national development banks using preferential-rate lending to steer capital toward domestic clean-energy and grid-storage build-out.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, via Governor Josh Shapiro's office and the Department of Community & Economic Development, assembled a $22 million public funding package — a $10 million Pennsylvania First grant plus $12 million through the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP, including $3 million previously awarded in 2022) — alongside a $2 million Allegheny County contribution, to secure a $352.9 million private investment from Eos Energy Enterprises. Eos will relocate its corporate headquarters from New Jersey to a 40,000-square-foot office at Nova Place in Pittsburgh and expand its zinc-based (Znyth) grid-scale battery manufacturing across two existing Turtle Creek facilities plus a new 432,000-square-foot plant in Marshall Township, Allegheny County. The project is expected to create 735 new jobs and retain 265 existing positions (1,000 total).

The UK Department for Business and Trade announced on 15 October 2025 a GBP 15 million grant, administered via the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC)'s Collaborative R&D competition under the DRIVE35 programme, toward a GBP 30 million project led by Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK (TMUK) to assess the feasibility of a lightweight L6e-category battery-electric micro-mobility vehicle. The consortium includes lightweight-EV specialist ELM, solar-technology firm Savcor, and the University of Derby, with manufacturing feasibility centred on TMUK's Burnaston site. The vehicle concept features an integrated solar roof, enhanced connectivity, and lightweight recyclable materials.

The California Energy Commission approved a USD 25 million grant to SE US Development LLC (SB Energy) under the state's Distributed Electricity Backup Assets (DEBA) program, adopted via resolution at the Commission's October 8, 2025 business meeting (Agreement DBA-25-002). The grant partially funds a 75MW/300MWh slice of a planned 400MW/1,600MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) that SB Energy is retrofitting to its existing 450MWac Athos Solar I + II complex in Riverside County. SB Energy is separately funding roughly USD 10.5 million of the BESS installation cost, with the CEC grant covering the bulk of battery procurement plus a smaller allocation to engineering and construction management; funds must be spent by June 30, 2030 to be reimbursed.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan's state export-credit and outbound-investment finance institution, signed a loan agreement on 2025-06-30 (announced 2025-10-06) providing USD 20.712 million toward a total co-financed package of USD 34.52 million (with Saitama Resona Bank, Limited) for F&P America Mfg., Inc. (FPA), the U.S. subsidiary of F-TECH INC. (Japan). The facility finances FPA's manufacturing and sale of suspension parts for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) at its plant in Ohio, following a major BEV suspension-component order. JBIC framed the loan as supporting the international competitiveness of Japanese industry and reinforcing the resilience of the Japanese automotive supply chain.

Spain's state development bank, Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), committed up to EUR 47 million (USD 55 million) in equity across two green infrastructure funds: up to EUR 24.5 million to Kobus Energy Transition I, FCR (solar, battery storage and hydrogen, target size EUR 70 million) and up to EUR 22.5 million to Azora European Climate Solutions Fund, FCR (solar, geothermal, industrialised/sustainable construction, target size EUR 200 million). Both commitments carry a 50% EU InvestEU guarantee. The new tranches bring ICO's cumulative InvestEU-backed green-fund investment to EUR 250 million, with a stated potential to mobilise over EUR 500 million once private capital is included.

The European Investment Bank signed a EUR 400 million (USD 469 million) intermediated framework loan with Norddeutsche Landesbank (NordLB) on 30 September 2025, under the "NordLB Renewable Energy 2" operation. NordLB on-lends the EIB funds at long-term, below-market financing conditions to eligible renewable-energy projects — mainly photovoltaic, onshore wind and battery storage — located predominantly in Germany and other EU countries, with the intermediated structure designed to extend financing to smaller projects that would not otherwise access direct EIB funding. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-loan intervention.

DOE's Loan Programs Office restructured the terms of its USD 2.23 billion Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing loan to Lithium Nevada LLC (Lithium Americas Corp.'s subsidiary) for the Thacker Pass lithium project in Nevada, in exchange for a direct government equity stake. The DOE received warrants for a 5% equity stake in Lithium Americas Corp. and a 5% economic stake in the Lithium Americas/General Motors joint venture, both at a nominal USD 0.01 exercise price, in consideration for deferring USD 184 million of scheduled debt service from the loan's first five repayment years to later maturity. Lithium Americas in turn agreed to contribute an additional USD 120 million to DOE loan reserve accounts within 12 months, and the restructuring unlocked the loan's first USD 435 million drawdown, disbursed October 20, 2025.

Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber executive committee (GECEX) issued Resolution No. 795 on 25 September 2025, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 26 September 2025, amending the "Lista de Autopeças Não Produzidas" (List of Non-Produced Auto Parts) under the Regime de Autopeças Não Produzidas established by Resolução Gecex nº 284/2021. The resolution removes two tariff-line exemptions (NCM 8501.53.10 Ex 017 and NCM 8507.60.00 Ex 042) and adds 78 new Ex-Tarifário lines covering hybrid/EV electric motors, lithium-ion battery-system components, ARLA32 supply systems, suspension and steering parts, transmission/differential components, electronic control units (ECUs), and body/structural panels — items for which Brazil certifies no equivalent domestic production exists, qualifying them for reduced import-duty treatment. Effective seven days after publication (3 October 2025), the newly added lines carry a defined two-year validity window through 30 September 2027 — the first time GECEX has attached a sunset date to auto-parts Ex-Tarifário grants, a procedural tightening relative to the open-ended grants issued under prior resolutions in this series.

Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) and the Serviço Geológico do Brasil (SGB) released the final report of the Plano Decenal de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais (PlanGEO 2026-2035) on 24 September 2025. The plan defines 145 priority research areas selected through public consultation for ten years of focused geological mapping and mineral-resources research, prioritising ten commodities — rare earths, lithium, copper, nickel, manganese, graphite, tin, gold, phosphate, and potassium — covering the battery / magnets demand spectrum plus food-security inputs. The plan is enabled by Portaria Normativa nº 72/GM/MME of 13 March 2024 and operates on a 2026-2035 horizon, with a SGB/MME budget-and-staffing scenario proposing up to a 50% increase in execution team and a 100% expansion in annual financial investment.

The UK's state-owned National Wealth Fund (NWF) announced a commitment of up to £31 million as part of a £35 million equity funding round for Cornish Lithium, with the remaining £4 million from existing investor TechMet. The capital is earmarked to advance the Trelavour Lithium Project toward a construction decision and the Cross Lanes Geothermal Lithium Project toward commercial drilling, both in Cornwall, England. The round is NWF's second equity investment in Cornish Lithium following an initial commitment in August 2023, and is conditional on shareholder approval, UK Takeover Panel sign-off, and clearance under the National Security and Investment Act 2021.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES signed a BRL 2.5 billion (~USD 471.6 million) financing contract with Starnav Serviços Marítimos on 22 September 2025 in Itajaí (Santa Catarina), drawing on the Merchant Marine Fund (Fundo da Marinha Mercante, FMM). The loan covers just over 88% of the ~BRL 2.9 billion cost of eight hybrid (diesel-electric with battery banks) multipurpose offshore support vessels — four Platform Supply Vessels (PSV) and four Oil Spill Recovery Vessels (OSRV), each 5,500 dwt — to be built at the Detroit Brasil shipyard in Itajaí. The vessels will be chartered to state oil company Petrobras under 12-year contracts to support offshore oil and gas production, and the project is projected to generate 1,400 direct and 6,300 indirect jobs. The announcement was part of a wider BRL 3.3 billion BNDES package for Santa Catarina covering naval, highway and agroindustry financing.

Presidential Decree (Cumhurbaşkanı Kararı) No. 10436, published in the Resmi Gazete on 22 September 2025, amends Türkiye's Import Regime Decision and the Additional Customs Duty Decision to standardise additional customs duty on passenger-vehicle imports (HS 8703) from all countries other than the ~24 FTA/customs-union partners (EU member states, South Korea, UK, Qatar and others). Rates are set at 25% or a minimum of USD 6,000/unit for conventional and non-plug-in hybrid vehicles, 30% or a minimum of USD 7,000/unit for plug-in hybrids, and 30% or a minimum of USD 8,500/unit for battery-electric vehicles. The decree enters into force 60 days after publication (21 November 2025), with a 30-day transition window in which declarations registered under the prior (lower or absent) duty regime are grandfathered.

On 14 September 2025 the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ) and the Salalah Free Zone signed a usufruct agreement with GFCL EV (SFZ) LLC — the Omani subsidiary of the Anox GFCL group — for the establishment of an OMR 188 million (~USD 488m headline / USD 216m initial) advanced battery-materials plant on a 370,000 m² site in the Dhofar Governorate. The facility will produce lithium iron phosphate cathode-active-material (LFP CAM), ammonium phosphate, iron salts, and carbon materials supporting up to 100 GWh of downstream battery production. The first phase (OMR 73m) is to be commissioned over 4–6 years. The signing is Oman's first downstream LFP-CAM operationalisation under Vision 2040 and lands against the parallel context of 26 upstream mining licences issued by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals (MEM) in 2024 covering chromite, copper, nickel, cobalt, laterite, gypsum, limestone, and construction materials across Dhofar, Al Wusta, North Al Sharqiyah, Al Batinah, and Al Dhahirah.

The Government of Canada announced CAD 16.5 million in cumulative federal funding (CAD 13.5 million newly announced, on top of an earlier CAD 3 million tranche) for the Kluane N'tsi (Lhù'ààn Mân N'tsi) Wind Energy Project, an Indigenous-owned 900-kW wind turbine with battery storage integrated into the diesel grid serving Burwash Landing and Destruction Bay, Yukon. Funding is drawn from three federal programs — Natural Resources Canada's Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities program (~CAD 13 million), Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada's Arctic Energy Fund (CAD 2 million), and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada's Northern REACHE program (CAD 1.5 million) — with the Government of Yukon contributing a further ~CAD 2 million. The project allows the Kluane First Nation to operate the community diesel grid in "diesel-off" mode when wind generation is sufficient, the first grid-scale project in Canada to do so, cutting diesel use by roughly 300,000 litres per year.

Invest Ontario, the Government of Ontario's investment-attraction agency, signed a non-binding term sheet to provide up to CAD 17.5 million (~USD 12.7 million) in state loan support to Electra Battery Materials Corporation toward its ~CAD 100 million project to build what the company describes as North America's first cobalt sulfate refinery, at Temiskaming Shores, Ontario. The funding is explicitly conditional on the parties reaching a definitive agreement and is intended to reduce reliance on foreign-controlled (principally Chinese) cobalt-refining capacity for EV and energy-storage battery supply chains.

The UK's state-owned National Wealth Fund (NWF), wholly owned by HM Treasury, committed up to £200 million in equity alongside a matching commitment from US investor EIG as part of a £445 million equity round for Fidra Energy. The capital, together with £594 million in loan facilities from a club of international lenders, financed the roughly £1 billion financial close of the 1,400 MW / 3,100 MWh Thorpe Marsh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Doncaster, England — billed as the UK's largest battery storage project and among the largest in Europe, expected to be operational by mid-2027.

Spain's Ministry of Industry and Tourism awarded InoBat (Slovak battery manufacturer, 25%-owned by China's Gotion High-Tech) a EUR 53.8 million grant plus a EUR 456,000 loan under the third call of PERTE VEC (Programa Estratégico para la Recuperación y Transformación Económica — Vehículo Eléctrico y Conectado), the battery-manufacturing tranche of Spain's EV supply-chain industrial-policy programme. The award, announced by President Pedro Sánchez on 8 September 2025, was to support a planned 32 GWh battery gigafactory in Valladolid (EUR 712m total project investment, 260 direct / ~500 indirect jobs, full capacity targeted for 2029). MINCOTUR later recorded InoBat's withdrawal of the award (~18 November 2025) after the Valladolid project was folded into a larger, Gotion-led initiative.

On 3 September 2025 the Union Cabinet approved the Incentive Scheme for Promotion of Critical Minerals Recycling (CMRIS), a ₹1,500 crore (~USD 180 million) capex and opex subsidy programme running FY2025-26 to FY2030-31 under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM). The scheme provides a 20% capex subsidy on plant and machinery plus 40–60% opex incentives to entities recycling critical minerals from secondary feedstocks — e-waste, lithium-ion battery scrap, and end-of-life vehicle catalytic converters. A Ministry of Mines gazette notification formalising the scheme was issued on 8 September 2025.

The Yogi Adityanath cabinet approved the Uttar Pradesh Electronics Component Manufacturing Policy 2025 (UP ECMP-2025) on 3 September 2025, designating an effective date retroactive to 1 April 2025 for a six-year policy horizon (sunset 31 March 2031). Administered by UPLC and Invest UP, the policy targets INR 5,000 crore in new investment by layering state-level incentives on top of the central MeitY Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), covering eleven priority component categories including displays, camera modules, multilayer PCBs, magnetics, lithium-ion cells, capacitors, resistors, semiconductor packaging substrates, sensors, connectors, and oscillators. UP is the fourth major Indian state (after Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh) to publish a dedicated ECMS-stacking instrument, completing the Big-Four-state cluster for ECMS-anchored greenfield investment.

France's Ministry of Industry and Energy, under Minister Marc Ferracci, announced a EUR 200 million green-industry tax credit (crédit d'impôt au titre des investissements dans l'industrie verte, C3IV) for Imerys' EMILI project at Échassières (Allier) — France's first domestic lithium mining and refining operation. The award was made as the project's total construction cost was revised up to EUR 1.8 billion. Once operational (targeted 2030), the site is expected to produce 34,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year, enough to supply around 700,000 electric vehicles and cover over 20% of French battery factories' lithium needs. The award was announced alongside a wider package of C3IV support: seven critical-metals projects received a combined ~EUR 809 million in tax credits, part of ~EUR 5.4 billion in supported critical raw materials investment nationally.

The UK's state-owned National Wealth Fund (NWF), wholly owned by HM Treasury, committed up to £200 million as part of a £500 million platform launched with infrastructure manager Equitix and Australian pension fund Aware Super. The platform, operated by Eelpower Energy, will build, own and operate grid-scale battery energy storage (BESS) assets, targeting over 1GW of new UK storage capacity, starting with seed assets already entering construction.

DVC, a central-government-owned power utility, issued a tender for a 132kV solar pooling station and 132kV double-circuit LILO transmission line at Konar, Jharkhand, to evacuate power from a 228 MW floating-solar project and a 100 MW/400 MWh battery storage system. The tender is valued at INR 113,169,393.72 (~USD 13.6m, requiring an EMD of INR 1,131,693.90) and embeds a domestic-supplier preference margin under India's Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017, giving Class-I local suppliers a bid-evaluation advantage in civil-engineering and engineering-services categories. GTA records the intervention as announced/implemented 20 August 2025.

On 19 August 2025 the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) opened applications for the Battery Breakthrough Initiative (BBI), an AUD 500 million capital-grant and production-incentive program to build domestic battery manufacturing capability across the value chain, from active materials to finished cells and packs. The program was first announced in the May 2024 Federal Budget as a pillar of the Future Made in Australia agenda and the National Battery Strategy, and is designed to strengthen supply-chain resilience by leveraging Australia's position as the world's largest lithium producer and a major nickel/cobalt/graphite supplier. Funding was subsequently cut to AUD 142.32 million in the 2026 Federal Budget (see amendments).

The European Commission cleared EUR 264 million (approx. HUF 103 billion) in Hungarian regional investment aid for Hungary Sunwoda Automotive Energy Technology Kft., the local unit of Chinese battery maker Sunwoda Electronic (300207.SZ), to support a EUR 1.43 billion lithium-ion battery-cell plant in Nyíregyháza (Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county). Aid takes the form of a direct cash grant plus a corporate development tax allowance, granted under Hungary's national investment-promotion regime (Government Decree 210/2014, as amended, and Government Decree 165/2014 on the development tax incentive). The Commission found the measure necessary, appropriate and proportionate under Article 107(3)(c) TFEU regional-aid rules and raised no objections; the project is expected to create over 2,500 direct and 470 indirect jobs.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved a BRL 186.1 million (~USD 33.6 million) financing operation for Bram Offshore Transportes Marítimos Ltda, part of the US Edison Chouest Offshore group and the largest offshore-support vessel operator in Brazil. The loan, drawn from the Merchant Marine Fund (Fundo da Marinha Mercante, FMM), covers 90% of a BRL 206.8 million project to repair, modernise and convert 15 support vessels — including hybrid-propulsion retrofits (battery installation) on at least one Petrobras-chartered vessel — at the Navship shipyard in Navegantes, Santa Catarina. The same BNDES announcement included a separate BRL 53.2 million FMM loan to Estaleiro Navship Ltda to resume pandemic-halted shipyard works at Porto do Açu (São João da Barra, RJ).

Italy's Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) signed a decree on 8 August 2025, published in Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 208 on 8 September 2025, allocating EUR 597.32 million in non-repayable ("a fondo perduto") incentives for the purchase of battery-electric vehicles. The scheme is funded under PNRR Investment 4.5 (light-duty private and commercial fleet renewal) and targets private individuals (one M1 passenger vehicle, list price capped at EUR 35,000 ex-VAT/options, grant EUR 9,000-11,000 based on ISEE income band) and microenterprises (up to two N1/N2 commercial vehicles, grant up to EUR 20,000 per vehicle capped at 30% of purchase price). Eligibility is restricted to residents/registered offices in functional urban areas (cities over 50,000 inhabitants plus commuter belt) and requires scrapping a Euro 5 or older internal-combustion vehicle.

Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-SURE), a Korean government export-credit agency, announced on 4 August 2025 a US$1bn (~KRW 1.4tn) financial guarantee backing LG Chem's construction of a cathode material plant in Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee. The facility is being built in a first phase for roughly KRW 2tn, with 60,000 tons/year of NCMA (nickel-cobalt-manganese- aluminum) cathode capacity — described by K-SURE as the largest cathode material production line in the United States, sufficient for around 600,000 electric vehicles. K-SURE stated this is the first US investment guarantee issued following the Korea-US tariff negotiation, under which Seoul agreed to channel a large bilateral investment package into the United States; the guarantee lets LG Chem access lower-cost, longer-tenor financing from global banks for the project.

The UK's state-owned National Wealth Fund (NWF), wholly owned by HM Treasury, made a £50 million (c. $66.4m) equity investment in AMP Clean Energy, backing the Asterion Industrial Partners-owned developer's rollout of "Battery Box" micro-scale battery storage sites connected to local distribution networks near demand centres (homes, schools, hospitals) across England, Scotland and Wales. The deal is intended to strengthen local grid flexibility and support industrial decarbonisation, and is explicitly tied to the government's Clean Power 2030 mission.

Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE), together with the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse, announced EUR 103.6 million in federal co-financing for two Vulcan Energy Resources projects: a lithium extraction plant (Natürlich Landau Lithium GmbH) converting geothermal brine into lithium chloride in Landau, Rhineland-Palatinate, and a central lithium plant (Vulcan Projektgesellschaft 2 GmbH) converting that lithium chloride into battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate in Frankfurt-Höchst, Hesse. The states each co-finance 30% of the federal contribution. Vulcan's total investment across both sites is EUR 690 million. Funding runs under the EU Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework via Germany's "Resilience and Sustainability of the Battery Cell Manufacturing Ecosystem" program; the Landau site was named an EU Critical Raw Materials Act Strategic Project in March 2025.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) jointly issued Announcement No. 28 of 2025 on 15 July 2025, partially adjusting the "Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted from Export" first published under Announcement No. 57 of 2023. The revision adds new restricted-export entries covering LFP/LMFP cathode electrode material preparation technology, lithium carbonate/lithium hydroxide preparation technology, and gallium processing technology, extending Beijing's export-control perimeter from raw critical minerals into upstream battery-material process technology. The same revision removed three unrelated entries (traditional Chinese architectural technology and building environment-control technology) from the prohibited/restricted lists. The catalogue took effect immediately upon publication and followed a January 2025 public-consultation draft.