Europe’s transformation into a battery-centered industrial economy has been faster and more disruptive than any other modern materials shift. The continent’s commitment to electric mobility, grid-scale storage, renewable-energy balancing, and electrified industry has created unprecedented demand for high-purity battery materials — lithium hydroxide and carbonate, nickel and manganese sulphates, cobalt intermediates, synthetic and natural graphite, precursor materials such as pCAM and CAM, electrolyte chemicals, binders, separators, and a rapidly widening family of engineered active materials. Yet the most striking feature of Europe’s battery materials landscape is not its potential but its absence: the continent today remains deeply dependent on foreign refinement, particularly from China, for every critical chemical used in lithium-ion and emerging solid-state systems.
This strategic imbalance has triggered a reindustrialisation wave across the European midstream. Gigafactories alone are insufficient; without integrated precursor and refining capacity, they remain incomplete industrial constructs, dependent on supply chains vulnerable to geopolitics, logistics fragility, and cost volatility. Europe’s acute bottleneck is therefore not at the cell-manufacturing level — but in the chemical and metallurgical steps that precede it. These steps require intense engineering, precise process control, sophisticated automation, high-purity utilities, and deep interdisciplinary collaboration. They represent the portion of the battery value chain where Europe is weakest, where investment needs are highest, and where engineering scarcity is most severe.
This is the environment in which Serbia can become indispensable. While Serbia cannot and should not attempt to replicate the scale of China’s chemical refining complexes, it can position itself as Europe’s most agile, technically capable, cost-efficient near-source engineering and processing hub for battery materials. The opportunity lies not in mass extraction but in the fine-processing of imported intermediates, the recycling and upcycling of battery scrap, the production of precursor materials for European gigafactories, and the engineering integration required to stabilise continental supply. Serbia’s engineering capacity — spanning hydrometallurgy, automation, HV/MV electrical systems, process modelling and precision plant layout — aligns directly with these needs.
The battery materials value chain begins with resource extraction, but Serbia’s competitive position becomes relevant only at the intermediate and advanced processing stages. Europe’s gigafactory build-out in Germany, France, Poland, Slovakia, Italy and the Nordics is now increasingly constrained by insufficient availability of cathode precursors, lithium hydroxide, nickel sulphate, manganese sulphate and high-purity graphite. Large European players are planning refining plants, but many face delays due to engineering shortages, long permitting cycles, constrained EPC resources and high capital costs. This opens a structural gap: Europe now requires a distributed network of smaller, flexible, modular refining and precursor plants — and Serbia is optimally positioned to host them.
Lithium refinement is a prime example. The production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide or carbonate requires multiple hydrometallurgical stages: impurity removal, ion exchange, crystallisation, calcination, and multi-stage filtration. These processes demand precise process engineering, advanced modelling, automation integration, and strict quality controls. Serbia’s engineering firms already support similar chemical-process industries across Europe, providing flowsheet design, P&IDs, equipment sizing, 3D modelling, PLC logic, SCADA integration and commissioning support. If Serbia positions itself as a lithium-refinement satellite for the European gigafactory network, the country can attract investment in mid-size hydrometallurgical lines producing 20,000–40,000 tonnes of lithium chemicals annually — volumes meaningful enough to supply high-value downstream users, but manageable within Serbia’s infrastructure and energy system.
The same applies to nickel and manganese sulphate — two critical inputs for NMC and LMFP cathodes. Europe will need millions of tonnes of these precursors by 2035, and current European refining capacity is insufficient. Serbia does not need to dominate the sector; it needs only to serve as a high-efficiency, near-source processing hub capable of converting imported nickel matte, MHP (mixed hydroxide precipitate), manganese ore or recycled intermediates into battery-ready chemicals. These facilities require multidisciplinary engineering teams able to manage complex impurity profiles, thermochemical stability, filtration cycles and continuous-operation controls. Serbia’s engineering base is not only capable of delivering such designs but can do so at a cost and speed unmatched in Western Europe, Poland or Romania.
Graphite offers another opportunity. Europe imports nearly 100% of its anode material from East Asia. Yet the essential processing steps — micronisation, sphericalisation, coating and thermal treatment — are highly engineering-intensive and require expertise in particle-size control, thermal uniformity, contamination prevention and equipment integration. These processes can be economically viable in Serbia, provided that clusters include advanced automation, energy-efficient thermal systems, and proximity to skilled engineering teams. A Serbian graphite-processing corridor could supply European gigafactories with spherical graphite or synthetic-graphite intermediates, reducing exposure to Chinese supply chains and offering environmentally superior production via renewable-powered furnaces or hybrid systems.
Battery recycling is perhaps Serbia’s most immediate entry point into the battery-materials economy. Europe faces a surge in production scrap as gigafactories ramp up, and a second surge beginning in 2030 as EV batteries reach end of life. Hydrometallurgical recycling — black-mass processing — is the most engineering-complex portion of the battery value chain and requires nearly identical skills to primary refining: leaching, solvent extraction, ion exchange, impurity removal, crystallisation and chemical conversion. Serbia can scale into this market rapidly. The engineering requirements are aligned with local competencies; CAPEX is moderate relative to smelting; environmental impacts are manageable; and market pull will only intensify as EU regulations mandate recycled content in EV batteries.
Serbia’s engineering ecosystem gives the country strategic leverage. European recycling companies can design conceptual flowsheets and core technology in Western Europe but outsource detailed design, modelling, piping, electrical integration, automation logic, safety systems and commissioning packages to Serbian teams. Over time, as Serbia builds its own hydrometallurgical R&D infrastructure, the country can become a centre of excellence in circular battery chemistry, supporting both primary and recycled material flows.
The energy dimension of battery-materials processing must also be understood clearly. Refining requires continuous, stable electricity and heat. Serbia’s mix of hydro, growing solar and the ability to secure PPAs provides a competitive platform. The integration of energy storage into industrial clusters will further stabilise supply. Over the 2026–2035 horizon, Serbia can position itself as a low-carbon, energy-flexible processing zone — an attractive proposition for European OEMs facing strict emissions-accounting frameworks.
Logistics also reinforces Serbia’s position. Battery materials are light relative to their value. This enables Serbia to process imported intermediates from Turkey, Greece, Italy, the Balkans, the Black Sea or the Mediterranean and ship refined materials efficiently into EU markets. The modernisation of Serbia’s railway corridors and the Danube transport system enhances this advantage. Serbia becomes a logistics-connected processing node rather than a land-locked secondary hub.
What Serbia cannot do is compete with countries like Finland in high-volume, fully integrated primary mining + refining ecosystems. Serbia’s strength lies instead in being the flexible, engineering-dense, cost-efficient location for modular plants, hybrid recycling centres, specialised hydrometallurgical lines, and precursor chemical units that complement European gigafactories. These facilities do not require massive mines; they require engineering intelligence, regulatory predictability and supply-chain proximity. Serbia offers all three.
The final layer of Serbia’s competitive advantage is its alignment with Europe’s emerging industrial-security doctrine. Europe now seeks short, controllable, engineering-driven supply chains for battery materials. Serbia provides a location that is geographically proximate, technically integrated, politically aligned with European standards and logistically efficient. Unlike Turkey, Serbia offers EU-standard documentation and regulatory compatibility. Unlike Poland, Serbia maintains cost structures that allow investors to scale advanced chemical facilities without cost overruns. Unlike Romania, Serbia offers deeper heavy-industry engineering capacity capable of supporting metallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes. This alignment gives Serbia a structural role in Europe’s battery-mobility future.
By 2035, if Serbia executes a coherent strategy, it can control a meaningful share of Europe’s midstream battery-materials ecosystem. It will not dominate the sector — that is neither realistic nor necessary. But Serbia can become the quiet backbone of Europe’s battery transition: the engineering centre that designs, tests and commissions hydrometallurgical plants; the processing corridor that converts imported materials into high-purity chemicals; the recycling hub that closes the loop; and the near-source partner that reduces Europe’s exposure to external volatility.
Europe’s energy transition depends on engineering. Serbia provides the engineering that makes battery materials possible. If the country continues to leverage its technical strength, build specialised clusters, integrate clean energy and maintain regulatory alignment, it will not merely participate in Europe’s battery revolution — it will help lead it.
Elevated by clarion.engineer