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Amid the intensifying battery war... POSCO's'lithium treasure country' declaration
Reporter Han Woo-Ram
input 2021/04/14 17:40

Modify 2021/04/14 19:42


Joint venture with Australia, the core material of EV battery cathode material Established a factory in Gwangyang
Mass production of 43,000 tons per year from 2023
Amid fierce competition between China and Korea for dominance in the global electric vehicle battery market, lithium, the core material of the cathode material for electric vehicle batteries, will begin mass production in Korea sooner or later. The main character is POSCO. This is the first time that Korea, a smelting powerhouse such as steel and non-ferrous metals, has started mass production of lithium. At the board meeting on the 9th, POSCO announced on the 14th that it reported and received approval for an annual 43,000t lithium ore extraction plant investment project in Yulchon Industrial Complex in Gwangyang, Jeonnam. This lithium production scale is a scale that can cover the amount of batteries for the production of about 1 million electric vehicles per year.

Domestic companies that produce cathode materials, which are materials for electric vehicle batteries, such as POSCO Chemical and Ecopro BM, have imported about 99.9% of lithium from the United States, China, and South America. Chinese battery makers, such as CATL, had less worries about the supply and demand of raw materials compared to domestic LG Energy Solutions, SK Innovation, and Samsung SDI, as they have lithium producers in their own country. In the future, when POSCO goes into mass production of lithium, domestic companies are expected to benefit from the smoother supply and demand of raw materials.

POSCO is considering a joint venture with Australian Pilbera, a lithium ore producer, and the two companies are discussing the share ratio and investment scale of the joint venture. The industry predicts that the investment will reach hundreds of billions of won.

POSCO has established a demonstration plant in Gwangyang so far to secure technology for lithium extraction. It is to start mass production by increasing the production scale by 17 times through this investment, which used to be only 2,500 tons per year in the demonstration plant. Construction of the factory that POSCO will establish in the form of a joint venture will begin construction in the first half of this year and is aimed at completion by 2023. This means that the K battery industry will have a supply chain that will lead to raw materials, battery production, and finished car production from 2023.


Link
https://m.mk.co.kr/news/business/view-amp/2021/04/359962/?__twitter_impression=true