Posco Chemical to further expand anode factory

Posco Chemical has signed off on an additional investment of 289.5 billion won to its NCMA anode materials factory, the company said on Wednesday.

Construction will begin on September for an additional 30,000 metric tonnes per year line at its Gwangyang plant. The line will completed in 2022.

It will be the plant’s third expansion. In May, construction for the second phase expansion began.

Gwangyang plant will have a production capacity of 70,000 metric tonnes per year when all expansion construction are completed. The annual production rates equals the amount needed for 840,000 units of 60Kwh electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

It will allow Posco Chemical to supply the materials stably to its clients and react to new orders better, the company said.

NCMA, or nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum, adds aluminum to the previous NCM anode materials. Additional of the aluminum increases energy density of batteries and increase stability and output of batteries.

Posco Chemical began construction of its Gwangyang plant in August, 2018 on an area of 165,203 square kilometers.

The South Korean chemical firm is aiming for a global market share of 20% and sales of 22 trillion won by 2030 from its battery materials business.