POSCO Int'l to supply nearly 7 mn motor cores to Hyundai Motor

South Korea's largest trading company POSCO International on Thursday said its affiliate POSCO Mobility Solution will supply motor cores to Hyundai Motor for 2.5 million next-generation flagship electric vehicles (EV) to be mass-produced from 2025 through 2034.

In November last year, POSCO Mobility signed a deal with the carmaker to supply 3.4 million cores for Hyundai's next-generation hybrid SUVs and another in January this year for 950,000 units for compact electric SUVs. Combined with the latest order for 2.5 million cores, POSCO Mobility will supply 6.85 million units over a 10-year period ending in 2034.

Along with the secondary battery, the motor core is a key component of the drive motor, the heart of eco-friendly vehicles such as hybrids, EVs and hydrogen fuel-cell models.

Spun off in 2020 as a subsidiary of POSCO International, POSCO Mobility is South Korea's top maker of such cores. With its patented self-developed technology and ability to procure electrical sheets through the steelmaker POSCO, POSCO Mobility has joined forces with global makers of finished vehicles.

To expand its eco-friendly mobility unit, POSCO International will build and run plants domestically and abroad in North America, Europe and China, form a global output and sales system for over seven million motor cores by 2030, and capture more than 10% of the global market.

Domestically, the company is building a system to make two million cores at its plants in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, and Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, to prepare for an explosion in demand on the eco-friendly motor market.

To tackle risk from trade barriers on the EV market such as from the US Inflation Reduction Act and Europe's Core Raw Materials Act as well as meet on-site procurement demand from finished vehicle makers, POSCO International is forming a global system to produce five million cores by 2030 in the continental base countries of China, Mexico, Poland and India.

In China, the company in March last year started construction of a plant with annual capacity of 900,000 units, with completion scheduled for this year's second half. Also by the second half, a plant in Mexico with annual capacity of 1.5 million units will commence full-scale operations.

And in Europe, POSCO International will begin this year construction of a plant in Poland, a production base country on the Continent, with output to begin from the second half of 2025.

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