Morrow files for bankruptcy as European-owned cell capacity continues to fall

Norwegian Tier 3 cell manufacturer Morrow has announced that it is filing for bankruptcy, halting its homegrown cell production plans. The company operates a 6GWh facility in Arendal, Norway, which was expected to ramp up to 42GWh.

The plant produces lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells for both electric vehicle (EV) and battery energy stationary storage (BESS) customers, with plans for lithium nickel manganese oxide (LMNO) capacity in the future. Earlier this year, Morrow signed an LFP supply agreement with Proventia, covering commercial and off-highway applications, that was scheduled to run until 2031.

Costs compounded by competition

Morrow stated that the decision to file for bankruptcy stems from high capex requirements to scale up the Arendal facility combined with ongoing opex costs. The company faced rising construction and equipment costs, as well as longer-than-expected qualification timelines with customers. These challenges have been compounded by intensifying competition in Europe from Asian incumbents such as CATL and LGES, who have leveraged their cell manufacturing experience at their operational cell plants in Europe.

Since January 2025, the European cell pipeline has declined by 29%, from 1,180GWh to 841GWh in May 2026, according to the Benchmark Battery & Gigafactory Service. This largely reflects project delays and cancellations by European producers, including the collapse of Northvolt in early 2025 and the cancellation earlier this year of Stellantis-backed ACC’s planned facility in Kaiserslautern, Germany. European producers saw their market share fall from 422GWh at the start of 2025 to 237GWh by May 2026, a decrease of 44%.

Dialling down capacity targets

Morrow’s bankruptcy underscores the structural difficulties new entrants face in securing funding and achieving the scale, yield, and cost structure needed to compete. In response, established European manufacturers are setting more conservative capacity targets, phasing investments around confirmed offtake, and forming strategic partnerships and joint ventures with established producers to share risk and access proven technology.

Morrow was one such producer to adopt this strategy by operating a low capacity plant and licensing technology from China in a bid to avoid the struggles experienced by Northvolt.

At the same time, European players face midstream bottlenecks, with limited regional CAM and AAM capacity, while Asian competitors benefit from integrated, mature global supply chains that reinforce their cost and reliability advantages in the European market.

The announcement comes after Freudenberg announced last month that it would dissolve its battery arm, Freudenberg e-Power Systems (FEPS), after it said that the battery market in the US, where FEPS was based, had developed more slowly than expected. UK battery supplier and BESS developer GivEnergy also entered administration last month. Benchmark tracks insolvencies and bankruptcies as part of its monthly Energy Transition Capital Briefing, which you can access here.

The insights in this article were drawn from Benchmark’s Battery & Gigafactory Service. To learn more about this, please fill in the form below and one of the team will be in touch: