POSCO Group is looking to drastically enhance its secondary battery material business and grow this business as non-steel major business.
POSCO ESM, which is a subsidiary of POSCO Group and manufactures secondary battery cathode materials, announced that it will be extending its production line to deal with increased demands from markets. POSCO ESM is going to invest $14.1 million (14.95 billion KRW) until the end of October and increase number of supplementary equipment such as furnace for production of cathode materials.
New production line is expected to start running in early 2018. POSCO ESM is going to produce NCM (Nickel Cobalt Manganese) cathode material from its new production line. When extension is completed, its production capacity of NCM cathode material will jump from 3,600 tons to 6,600 tons annually. NCM cathode materials that are produced from new production line will be supplied to Samsung SDI, which is one of its major customers.
Although POSCO ESM jumped into this market late, it has quickly gained competitive edge based on POSCO Group’s knowhow in production of steel materials and successful research on various new materials. It is currently selling next-generation cathode material called NCM 811 (Nickel: Cobalt: Manganese; 8:1:1), which has increased energy density for IT and mobile devices. One of its goals is to commercialize NCM 811 for electric vehicles by 2021.
“Although POSCO ESM is a latecomer in secondary battery industry, it has high-nickel NCM cathode material as its main business based on new technologies.” said President Kim Joon-hyung of POSCO ESM who served as the department head of POSCO’s New Business Department and the department head of POSCO ESM’s Production Headquarters. “We are going to become one of the influential business in this industry by making bold investments.”
POSCO Group is also working to enhance its production capacity of major raw materials such as lithium based on aggressive investments.
POSCO Group agreed with Huayou Cobalt, which is the world’s biggest cobalt manufacturer, to build a joint-corporation and it has decided to produce 4,600 tons of precursors and cathode materials annually in China starting from 2020. It also signed a longtime purchase contract with an Australian mining company called Pilbara to produce 240,000 tons of pure lithium annually and it prepared a foundation to produce 30,000 tons of lithium annually starting from 2020. Recently, its consortium with Samsung SDI was selected as the final candidate of Chile’s lithium project. POSCO Group and Samsung SDI are going to receive supplies of lithium from Chilean Government and they are going to produce 3,200 tons of cathode materials annually in Chile starting from 2021. POSCO ChemTech, which is a subsidiary of POSCO Group and the biggest South Korean anode material manufacturer, recently started operating its new production lines 6 and 7 and doubled its production capacity to 16,000 tons.
Staff Reporter Jung, Hyunjung | iam@etnews.com