Valmet Automotive CEO responds to Northvolt factory deaths, assures safety of Finnish battery factories

Kimmo Suupohja, CEO of Valmet Automotive’s battery factory in Salo, Finland, has expressed concern about the recent deaths at Northvolt’s battery cell factory in Northern Sweden. The cause of these three unusual deaths, which occurred this year, is currently under investigation by the police. An accident also happened on Sunday, resulting in two workers being exposed to chemical emissions.

Suupohja, however, believes that similar accidents are not likely to occur in Finland, due to the different manufacturing processes. Finland has about ten battery manufacturing factories, none of which produce battery cells like the Skellefteå factory in Sweden.

“The Northvolt factory is a chemical-mechanical factory that purely manufactures battery cells. We do not manufacture these cells in Finland, we have completely different processes,” Suupohja said. He emphasizes that if these accidents are due to chemical processes or different types of gas emissions, such accidents cannot happen in Finland because these chemical processes do not exist there.

Valmet Automotive’s battery factory in Salo employs about 800 people, and there are 300 in Uusikaupunki. According to Suupohja, the staff have not been worried about the accidents in Sweden. However, there have been inquiries about these accidents.

Even though accidents like those in Sweden cannot happen in Finland, the battery factories in Salo and Uusikaupunki have detailed safety plans. Other types of accidents involving batteries can still occur. “The biggest accident risk is a battery cell fire. If a battery cell breaks and catches fire, it cannot be extinguished with water, for example,” Suupohja explained.

At the factories, various safety and evacuation drills are continuously practiced in collaboration with the fire department. Some workers have received special training for battery fires. “We have had small battery fires, but they have been quickly extinguished according to our training,” Suupohja added.

Northvolt’s Skellefteå battery cell factory is a massive facility, at least a hundred times larger than the Salo battery factory. It is unknown how many battery cells are exported to Finland from there. “I don’t believe there are many. Most of the world’s cell manufacturers are from China or Korea,” Suupohja stated.

Suupohja did not disclose whether Valmet Automotive uses Northvolt’s battery cells in their manufacturing. “Usually, our customers choose the battery cells used in the batteries themselves, it is their trade secret,” he said.