The construction of the new $5-billion electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor is resulting in some unprecedented activity through Port Windsor.
The Windsor Port Authority has announced that the docks of Port Windsor will handle the delivery of more than one million tonnes of aggregate, or crushed stone, to prepare the battery plant site for construction.
The one million tonnes will require more than 50 marine deliveries across the Great Lakes, from four different quarries in Michigan, Ontario, and Ohio, to supply the aggregate to the battery plant construction site in the Twin Oaks Industrial Park.
Steve Salmons, President and CEO of the Windsor Port Authority, says this is the beginning of a promise we heard about when it came of the economic impact of the EV battery plant.
"It's going to bring in over 400 trucks a day, that's 35,000 truck loads. This is just a tremendous economic impact to our community and just the beginning," he says.
This work is expected to continue for the next three months, with all the material to be delivered by Christmas.
Salmons says this amount is more than twice the amount of aggregate they would bring in through the port in a really, really good year.
He says they would typically bring in half-a-million to a million tonnes of aggregate in a year but this will happen in just three months.
Salmons says the best years they ever had at the port was during the construction of the Herb Grey Parkway.
"Around 2012 and 2014, when we were building the Herb Grey Parkway because there was so much material, so much aggregate, so much concrete brought in to build that $2-billion expressway," he says" "I think over a couple of years they brought in a million and a half tonnes, we're going to do a million tonnes in three months."
Salmons points out that the big logistical challenge is not just moving 50 ships through here and 400 trucks a day through the port, it's finding 50 ships at this late in the season. He says ships are secured by port operators across the Great Lakes in the winter but they're fully confident they will be able to deliver on this.
Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions announced a partnership in March 2022 to build a large-scale lithium-ion battery production plant on over 200-acres of land on Twin Oaks Drive near Banwell Road.
The manufacturing facility, to be known as NextStar Energy, is expected to create an estimated 2,500 new jobs in Windsor and the surrounding areas.
Production operations are planned to launch in the first quarter of 2024.
Around 850 people currently work at Port Windsor at 3190 Sandwich St.