POSCO-Pilbara JV delivers 1st order of lithium hydroxide

South Korea’s top steel group POSCO has shipped lithium hydroxide, a rechargeable battery’s key raw material produced jointly with Australia-based Pilbara Minerals Ltd., from their joint factory in Korea for the first time, speeding up the localization of battery raw materials production.

POSCO announced on Friday that POSCO-Pilbara Lithium Solution Co., a lithium hydroxide-producing joint venture set up by POSCO’s holding company POSCO Holdings Inc. and Pilbara Minerals, delivered its first lithium hydroxide order worth 28 tons, produced from its plant in Gwangyang, Korea, to its cathode-producing customer on Tuesday.

The Korean company said it was the first commercial production of lithium hydroxide with POSCO's proprietary technology that extracts lithium directly from lithium-containing ores in Korea.

The successful production and delivery of lithium hydroxide from POSCO Pilbara Lithium Solution’s plant is expected to stabilize the country’s battery material supply chain, industry observers said.

Lithium hydroxide is a key raw material for high-nickel cathodes, a core component of a rechargeable battery. Despite its growing demand, Korea has fully relied on lithium hydroxide imports.

The plant, located at the Yulchon Industrial Complex in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, opened in November last year. It is expected to churn out 21,500 tons of lithium hydroxide per annum once it is fully operational, said the company.

POSCO-Pilbara Lithium Solution is currently building a second lithium hydroxide plant with the same production capacity with a plan to complete its construction by the end of this year.  

The combined 43,000 tons of annual lithium hydroxide output will be enough for batteries to run 1 million electric vehicles.

The JV plans to certify the quality of lithium hydroxide produced from its first plant by the end of this year to start its sale to cathode producers in full swing.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.