The Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) share price is pushing higher on Friday.
In morning trade, the mining giant's shares are up 1.5% to $14.52.
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Why is the Fortescue share price pushing higher?
There have been a couple of potential catalysts for the rise in the Fortescue share price this morning.
The first is a rebound in iron ore prices overnight. According to CommSec, the spot benchmark iron ore price rose by US$2.40 or 1.9% to US$126 a tonne during Thursday night trade.
Also potentially giving the Fortescue share price a boost is an announcement from its Fortescue Future Industries business.
What did Fortescue announce?
This morning Fortescue announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Plug Power for a 50-50 joint venture to build a Gigafactory in Queensland, Australia.
Plug Power is a Nasdaq-listed leading provider of turnkey hydrogen solutions for the global green hydrogen economy.
If the agreement goes ahead, the two companies will build a two-gigawatt factory to produce large-scale proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers.
It will also have the ability to expand into fuel cell systems and other hydrogen-related refuelling and storage infrastructure in the future.
The release advises that Plug Power will supply the electrolyser and fuel cell technology and Fortescue Future Industries will contribute advanced manufacturing capabilities.
Fortescue Future Industries will also be the primary customer of the products manufactured by the joint venture. This will enable its ambitions in decarbonising its operations with stationary power and mobility applications running on green hydrogen.
Fortescue Future Industries' CEO, Julie Shuttleworth, commented:
We need solar panels, wind towers, and electrolyzers in such scale that we need to produce them where we use them – including in Australia. We have enough solar and wind in Australia to power many countries of the world. Working together with Plug Power, we can create this future.
