POSCO Future M to produce nickel for cathodes in the Philippines

South Korean battery materials maker POSCO Future M Co. is set to produce nickel in the Philippines to boost its cathodes supplies and improve profitability, the company said on Friday.

POSCO Future M said on Aug. 17 it signed a memorandum of agreement with Nickel Prime Solutions Inc. (NPSI), a unit under the Philippine’s miner and renewable energy producer MC Group, the previous day.

The Korean battery materials maker and NPSI will set up a joint venture and construct a plant in the Philippines for mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), which will be used as an ingredient of high-purity nickel sulfate for cathodes. Nickel in cathodes create greater storage capacity for batteries.

It will mark the first time for POSCO Future M, a subsidiary of steel giant POSCO Group, to produce battery materials abroad.

The plant will source nickel ore from MC Group's mine in Palawan, which has 40 million tons of nickel reserves, POSCO Future M said. The Filipino miner has pledged to secure 200 million tons of the metal by 2026 for the partnership with the Korean company.

The new factory plans to use a new processing technology, which saves costs and halves carbon emissions compared with the conventional one, POSCO Future M said. The technology is currently under co-development by the company and the Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST) based in Pohang, where POSCO Group is headquartered.

POSCO Future M expects the cathodes made in the Filippino factory will be eligible for tax perks under the US Inflation Reduction Act as the Southeast Asian country is a free trade agreement (FTA) partner of the US. The law gives tax credits to electric vehicles that use battery minerals and core parts supplied from North America or the US’ FTA partners.

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), an agency within the country’s Department of the Interior, the Philippines was the world’s second-largest nickel producer with 330,000 metric tons (MT) last year, following Indonesia with 1.6 million MT. Russia ranked third with 220,000 MT output and New Caledonia produces 190,000 MT.

Write to Mi-Sun Kang at misunny@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.