POSCO Future M to inject $461 mn to bulk up cathode production

POSCO Future M Co., a unit of South Korean steel giant POSCO Holdings Inc., said on Monday it has decided to invest 614.8 billion won ($460.5 million) to produce an additional 46,000 tons of high-nickel cathode, a key component for electric vehicle batteries, annually by the end of 2025.

The plan includes a 392.1 billion won investment in the battery ingredient, which was announced last month. 

The company will begin building the facilities for high-nickel cathode in the second half of this year in Pohang, a port city on Korea's southeast coast where the POSCO Group is headquartered. When completed by end-2025, its cathode production capacity will reach 271,000 tons a year.

POSCO Future M, formerly POSCO Chemical Co., is making 105,000 tons of cathodes a year. The production is comprised of 90,000 tons from the Gwangyang plant in South Jeolla Province, the world’s largest single plant for manufacturing cathode, 10,000 tons from the Gumi plant in North Gyeongsang Province, and 5,000 tons from a factory in Zhejiang Province, China.  

The company will also complete a 30,000-ton factory construction in the second half of this year and start building another 30,000-ton plant in April, both in Pohang.

In addition, POSCO Future M and General Motors are building a joint venture plant in Quebec, Canada to produce cathode materials of 30,000 tons. The Korean firm is also constructing facilities for another 30,000 tons with China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, the world’s largest cobalt maker.

FOR HIGHER CAPACITY, BATTERY OUTPUT


More than 80% of high-nickel cathode is nickel, which strengthens capacity and output as well as extends the life of batteries, driving demand in line with the trend toward high-performance EVs. Other ingredients of the cathode include cobalt, manganese and aluminum.

POSCO Future M is aiming to further bulk up its cathode production to achieve 345,000 tons per year by 2025, as well as expand its portfolio of battery components and intensify research and development. 

The company is the only Korean firm that manufactures both cathode and anode, another building block of lithium-ion batteries. The POSCO unit localized anode production technology in 2010 and has manufactured critical materials such as graphite.

Cathode production is the biggest cash cow for POSCO Future M. The company’s cathode supplies to LG Energy Solution Ltd., the world’s second-largest battery maker for EVs, made up 50% of its revenue last year.

It also signed a 10-year cathode ingredient supply deal worth 40 trillion won in January to provide the materials to Samsung SDI Co., the world’s sixth-largest EV battery maker.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com


Jihyun Kim edited this article.