Governments weren’t always working in tandem during ‘Freedom Convoy’: Trudeau

MONTREAL – Northvolt AB has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, but said the move will not jeopardize the manufacturer’s planned electric vehicle battery plant in Quebec — though hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars invested in the parent company could be lost.

Amid a sputtering global market for EVs, the Sweden-based outfit and several subsidiaries filed for a court-supervised reorganization of its debt and assets under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.

However, Northvolt said its Canadian subsidiary is financed separately and “will continue to operate as usual outside of the Chapter 11 process.”

The Northvolt plant, dubbed Northvolt Six and slated for construction about 25 kilometres east of Montreal, amounts to a $7-billion undertaking that aims to churn out battery cells and cathode active material for electric vehicles.

“I see no reason today to think that we won’t do it as planned,” said Paolo Cerruti, Northvolt co-founder and CEO of Northvolt North America, which oversees the project, in an interview.

“Activity on the site is daily and very intense, and there are trucks every day and around 150 people working.”

Nonetheless, concerns around Northvolt’s financial solvency have raised questions about a project to which Quebec and Ottawa have pledged $2.4 billion in funding.

“This was not the desired scenario, no one is hiding it, we would have liked it to proceed differently,” said Quebec Economy Minister Christine Fréchette at a news conference Thursday.

The province granted Northvolt a $240-million secured loan to help buy the land for the plant in Quebec’s Montérégie region.

The government also invested $270 million in parent company Northvolt AB.

“If there’s an amount at risk, it’s this one,” Fréchette said. She noted that “we’ll have an idea of the future of this amount” only when the restructuring process wraps up.

The province has no intention of investing more money in Northvolt, the minister added.

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the province’s pension fund manager, has also poured $200 million into the Swedish company.

In September, Northvolt announced it would shrink its operations in Europe and lay off 1,600 employees in Sweden, or about one-fifth of its workforce.

The company recently sold its site in Borlänge, Sweden, where it was poised to build a factory for cathode materials — metal oxides that comprise a key component of the lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars.

Last month, Cerruti suggested the company may have been overly ambitious, but said it had no intention of asking the provincial or federal governments for more money for its planned battery plant in southwest Quebec.

“Northvolt Six is an essential component of the company’s future and we remain fully committed to seeing it through,” he said in a statement Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index gained more than 350 points Thursday in a broad rally led by energy and technology stocks, while U.S. markets also rose, led by a one-per-cent gain on the Dow. 

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 354.22 points at 25,390.68.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 461.88 points at 43,870.35. The S&P 500 index was up 31.60 points at 5,948.71, while the Nasdaq composite was up 6.28 points at 18,972.42.

The Nasdaq lagged an otherwise decent day for Wall St., rising just 0.03 per cent as it was dragged down by Google parent Alphabet and some of its tech giant peers. 

The tech company’s stock fell 4.6 per cent after U.S. regulators asked a judge to break it up by forcing a sale of the Chrome web browser. 

Amazon shares traded down 2.2 per cent while Meta and Apple both moved lower as well. 

After a substantial run for major tech stocks this year, that kind of news “shakes people a bit,” said John Zechner, chairman and lead equity manager at J. Zechner Associates.

Meanwhile, semiconductor giant Nvidia saw its stock tick up modestly by 0.5 per cent after it reported earnings Wednesday evening.

The company yet again beat expectations for profit and revenue, and gave a better revenue forecast for the current quarter than expected. 

But expectations for Nvidia have been so high amid the optimism over artificial intelligence that even beating forecasts wasn’t enough to send its stock flying the way it has in previous quarters, said Zechner. 

Nvidia essentially caps earnings season in the U.S., with companies largely beating expectations, said Zechner — though those expectations weren’t exactly lofty for companies outside the tech and AI sphere, he added. 

The Dow led major U.S. markets as the post-election hopes for economic growth continued to fuel a broadening of market strength, said Zechner. 

There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, said Zechner, and there’s no guarantee he will do what he’s promised.

“There’s a lot of unknowns, but for now the markets seem to be assuming that whatever comes of this, the U.S. will continue to lead global growth,” he said. 

However, some of Trump’s promises — chief among them widespread tariffs on imports — have sparked bets that inflation may rear its head again.

The market has pared back its expectations for interest rate cuts as a result, said Zechner. 

“Nobody’s talking about a half-point cut, that’s for sure,” he said. 

The Canadian dollar traded for 71.63 cents US compared with 71.46 cents US on Wednesday.

The January crude oil contract was up US$1.35 at US$70.10 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up nine cents at US$3.48 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was up US$23.20 at US$2,674.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was down three cents at US$4.13 a pound.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) 

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

HALIFAX – Uncertainty is a key theme this year at the annual, three-day gathering in Halifax of political leaders, defence officials and policy analysts who aim to promote democratic values around the globe. 

The 300 delegates from 60 countries will take part in the Halifax International Security Forum, which begins Friday, less than three weeks after Donald Trump’s United States presidential election victory — a result that has raised questions about U.S. military support for the threatened democracies of Ukraine and Taiwan.

Over the past two years, Trump has repeatedly taken issue with the almost $60 billion in assistance to Ukraine provided by U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, and he’s made vague vows to end the war. The president-elect has also been unclear if his upcoming administration would defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion by China, and has suggested the self-governed island “should pay us for defence.”

Peter Van Praagh, president of the forum, said in an interview Wednesday that in November 2016 — after Trump’s first ascent to the White House — there was “a level of shock that this could happen,” but he said this year shock has been replaced with a feeling of incertitude.

“One of the things that the president-elect Trump brings to the table is a level of uncertainty …. Now everybody is looking to reduce that uncertainty and get some type of clarity on what his priorities will be,” he said.

Van Praagh expects the speakers at the 16th forum will present evidence justifying why the Trump administration must continue Biden’s financial and military support for Ukraine, arguing that the security of democracies around the globe depends on it.

He said he’s pleased former Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen will deliver a speech Saturday, which is expected to emphasize how U.S. support for Ukraine is crucial to the security of her country and its democracy.

Tsai left office in May. During her two terms in office she came under frequent attack from China for her refusal to recognize Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over the island.

Van Praagh said the politician — who remains an influential figure in the ruling Democratic Progressive Party — is expected to describe how the threat from China isn’t isolated from the conflict in Central Europe. “All of these things are connected. Ukrainian security is connected with security in eastern Asia,” he said. 

Van Praagh said he hopes speakers at the forum help to influence members of the U.S. congressional delegation on the importance of backing Taiwan and Ukraine.

In 2016, former Republican Sen. John McCain was a prominent and influential figure in Washington, and he regularly attended the Halifax security forum — bringing the ideas he heard back to the Senate. An award has been given out in his name at the forum each year since he died in 2018.

This year, two Republican senators, James Risch of Idaho — who may chair the influential foreign relations committee after Trump takes office — and Mike Rounds from South Dakota are attending as part of the U.S. congressional delegation, along with four Democratic Party senators.

“These guys not only have a say, they have a vote,” said Van Praagh.

Risch will be a speaker at the opening session of the conference on Friday, along with Democratic Party Sen. Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire, as they discuss America’s role in the world. The opening day will also hear from Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly, who will sit on a panel titled “Victory in Ukraine” alongside Rounds.

Other invited guests include Gen. Jennie Carignan, head of the Canadian Armed Forces, who will sit on a panel with U.S. Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific command, and Andrew Shearer, director of Australia’s Office of National Intelligence, on Saturday.

Many of the events over the forum’s three days, including a plenary session on threats to the Canadian Arctic from Russia and China, tie back to the conflict in Ukraine, and to whether Western democracies should continue to back the country.

“Should we succeed in Ukraine and push Russia out of Ukraine, every other international challenge becomes easier,” Van Praagh said. “If Russia succeeds, everything becomes more difficult.”

“The alternative is chaos and more war.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.