Fortescue Future Industries chief executive Mark Hutchinson said the need for electrolysers in coming years would be huge, and the Gladstone factory would complete its first electrolysers within the next six months.
He said the electrolysers delivered this year would be made by hand, with a full production line unlikely to be installed at Gladstone until next year.
“We have also successfully completed the build of our PEM prototype [a type of electrolyser that works on proton exchange membrane] and manual production of electrolysers has commenced,” he said.
“We remain firmly on track to produce Queensland-made, FFI electrolysers this year. This is no small feat. We are the first in Australia to do anything like this.
“The further fit-out of the facility – including the automated production line and testing facilities – is on track, with fully automated production at scale for stacks planned from early next year.”
Fortescue declined to say whether it had signed any contracts to sell electrolysers made at Gladstone to third parties. It appears likely that electrolysers made at Gladstone will – for the near future – be for Fortescue’s internal use in decarbonising its iron ore mines, rather than on-sold.
Mr Hutchinson confirmed that Fortescue was still planning to purchase electrolysers from Plug Power; a situation that suggests the Gladstone factory cannot fully satisfy Fortescue’s needs.
“Given our own demand, we are also maintaining our relationship with suppliers external to us, including Plug Power,” he said.
“We’ve been very thoughtful about how we build the best value for shareholders – not just on the production side, but also on the technology side. There is enormous value in learning the technology, and it is going to develop very quickly, which we have the scale and capability to do.”
Fortescue’s demand for electrolysers remains strong despite its decarbonisation director, Christiaan Heyning telling Wednesday’s Energy and Mines Australia Summit that batteries would beat hydrogen to be the low carbon source of power for big haul trucks this decade.
Those views were shared by Rio Tinto executive John Mulcahy.
Nel is rapidly expanding its electrolyser manufacturing plants in North America and Scandinavia, and it told shareholders last month that it planned to make between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of the world’s electrolysers (excluding China) by 2025.
Despite the strong demand and Nel’s incumbency, the company’s electrolyser division lost the equivalent of $4.6 million in the three months to March 31. That result was an improvement on the $8.2 million loss made by the division in the same period in 2022.