POSCO Future M Co., a major South Korean battery components maker, said Monday it will build a new high-nickel cathode plant in the country's southeast to meet growing global demand.
The company said its board approved a plan to spend 614.8 billion won (US$461 million) for a nickel, cobalt, manganese and aluminum (NCMA) cathode factory at its main industrial complex in Pohang, about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
The envisioned plant will have an annual capacity of 46,000 tons. Currently, POSCO Future M's domestic and overseas cathode plants have an overall capacity of 105,000 tons.
Cathodes determine the power and range of electric vehicle (EV) battery cells. They account for more than 40 percent of a cell's production cost.
About a month ago, the chemical materials unit of POSCO Holdings Inc. announced a plan to spend 392 billion won to construct a high-nickel cathode plant with an annual capacity of 30,000 tons in Pohang.
The NCMA cathode plant would raise POSCO Future M's cathode production capacity to 106,000 tons annually in Pohang alone by 2025.
POSCO Future M also runs a cathode plant in the southwestern city of Gwangyang, about 290 km south of Seoul, which has an annual capacity of 90,000 tons.
In July 2022, POSCO Future M clinched a mega-contract with Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture between LG Energy Solution Ltd. and General Motors Co., as it has been expanding its battery materials business since its advance into the sector in 2012.
The company is currently building a high-nickel cathode plant with an annual capacity of 30,000 tons in Canada under its own joint venture with GM, and another joint-venture factory in China's Zhejiang province, which would produce 30,000 tons of cathodes per annum.
POSCO Future M said its latest investment decision would raise its total cathode production capacity at home and abroad to 271,000 tons by 2025.
Source: Yonhap News Agency