POSCO to build world's largest battery cathode plant cluster

GWANGYANG, South Jeolla Province  -- POSCO Future M Co., a battery materials supplier, on Thursday broke ground on its fifth cathode materials plant for nickel, cobalt and aluminum (NCA) batteries in Gwangyang to make the complex in South Jeolla Province the world's largest manufacturing cluster for cathode materials in terms of capacity.

The factory is expected to produce 52,500-ton cathode materials embedded in 60 kilowatt-hour batteries annually, enough to charge 580,000 EVs. The products will be supplied exclusively to Samsung SDI Co.

Once completed by April next year as scheduled, it will expand POSCO Future M's capacity for cathode materials at its Gwangyang complex to 142,500 tons, the world's largest capacity for a single manufacturing cluster of the materials, POSCO said.

"We will push ahead with our goal of producing 1 million-ton cathodes annually by 2030 without delay," Kim Jun-Hyung, chief executive of POSCO Future M, said in the groundbreaking ceremony.

Currently, the unit of South Korea's No. 1 steelmaker POSCO Group operates four cathode materials plants in Gwangyang with a combined annual capacity of 90,000 tons.

SINGLE-CRYSTAL NCA CATHODES

"Once this fifth factory is completed, we will be able to mass-produce single-crystal NCA cathodes and raise our products' value," said a POSCO Future M official.

Compared with conventional cathodes, single-crystal cathodes reduce fire risk during the process of charging and discharging, enhance thermal stability and increase a battery's lifespan.

In March last year, POSCO Future M started producing single-crystal cathodes for nickel, cobalt, manganese and aluminum (NCMA) batteries to become the first Korean battery materials company to produce them, touted as a game changer in the electric vehicle battery market.

It plans to build two more cathode materials plants in Gwangyang to boost its annual production there to a minimum of 200,000 tons.

The groundbreaking ceremony comes as it has embarked on the construction of an NCA battery cathode plant in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, home to POSCO Group.

It is aiming to complete the plant by the end of this year.

Particularly, the fifth Gwangyang plant and the new Pohang-based facility will be dedicated mainly to single-crystal nickel-rich cathode materials used for high-performance EV batteries.

GRAPHITE IMPORTS FOR ANODE MATERIALS

POSCO Future M is also South Korea's sole anode materials producer for EV batteries.

It is producing natural graphite-based anode materials, wholly dependent on graphite imports from China. 

Kim said in a news conference before the groundbreaking ceremony that it is considering investing in a natural graphite mine in Africa, including Madagascar, to qualify for tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

"We are considering investing and will announce details in that regard soon," he said, referring to its possible investment in an African graphite mine.

The IRA requires that at least half the value of critical minerals and materials in EV batteries must be sourced from North America or its free trade partners.

(Updated with CEO's comments on graphite sourcing diversification)

Write to Sang-Hoon Sung at uphoon@hankyung.com
 

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.