POSCO Future M aims to raise profit 20-fold by 2030

POSCO Future M Co., South Korea’s electric vehicle battery materials maker, aims to raise its profit by about 20 times and sales over tenfold by 2030 through business expansion and new product development.

The unit of the country’s steel giant POSCO Holdings Inc. said on Monday it targets an operating profit of 3.3 trillion won and sales of 43 trillion won by that year. It reported an operating income of 165.9 billion won based on revenue of 3.3 trillion won last year.

“The global EV market is expected to surpass the internal combustion engine car sector in 2030 with an annual growth of 17%,” POSCO Future M President Kim Joon-Hyung told employees at the Aug. 28 meeting, adding the company must focus on the secondary battery materials business to take advantage of EV growth.

“POSCO Future M is the only total solution provider that can produce both cathodes and anodes simultaneously in South Korea. So we should accomplish quantitative growth,” Kim said, referring to the core EV battery materials.

The global cathodes market is forecast to more than triple to 6 million tons by 2030 from an estimated 1.9 million tons this year, while the anode sector is predicted to soar to 2.7 million tons from 920,000 tons during the period, Kim added.

TO COVER TOTAL VALUE CHAIN

The long-term business goal pushed up POSCO Future M’s share prices by up to 2.1% to close at 472,000 won in Seoul’s main stock market where the Kospi ended up 1%.

The company, formerly POSCO Chemical Co., plans to cover the entire value chain of EV battery materials, including mineral production and recycling processes while ramping up global manufacturing capacities based on POSCO Group’s financial support and developing technologies in cooperation with academics and research institutes.

Last month, POSCO Group unveiled a plan to spend 46% of its investments on POSCO Future M for the next three years.

POSCO Future M is set to focus more on eco-friendly products with high profits and recycle all of its waste refractories for its basic materials business. Based on this, it aims to expand into overseas markets such as Vietnam and Turkey.

The company also aims to upgrade its new activated carbon business to include premium materials including products for carbon capture.

TO RAISE CATHODES, ANODES CAPACITY

POSCO Future M is set to increase the production capacity of cathodes and anodes to 1 million tons and 370,000 tons, respectively, by 2030 from the planned 215,000 tons and 93,000 tons next year, Kim said.

“We will concentrate on the expansion of local facilities in Pohang and Gwangyang where we are already operating cathode plants at home,” Kim said.

The company aims to produce 695,000 tons of cathodes in South Korea, 240,000 tons in North America and Europe, as well as 65,000 tons in Asia, he said.

It is now set to manufacture 235,000 tons of cathodes at home, 80,000 tons in the West and the rest in other regions.

The company, which has been strengthening its raw materials business, has secured 83.5 trillion won in cathode manufacturing orders from the world’s No. 2 EV battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. and its joint venture with General Motors Co. Ultium Cells LLC., as well as Samsung SDI Co., so far this year.

(Updated with POSCO Future M share price, Kospi closing level)

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.