Posco Chemical to build new battery cathode factory at Pohang
Firm to spend 3 trillion won up to 2025
Posco Chemical is planning to start construction of a new battery cathode factory at Pohang, TheElec has learned.
It will be its first factory in the South Korean city and the facilities there will produce both cathode and anode, sources said.
The company has earmarked around 3 trillion won which will be spent up to 2025 for the factory. Around 2.7 trillion won of that will be spent on building cathode facilities with the rest on anode facilities.
The South Korean chemical giant will also be producing precursors for cathodes at the new facility.
Posco Chemical currently produces cathode in Gumi and Gwangyang in South Korea.
It also has a cathode factory in China and is planning to build another in Canada in collaboration with US automobile giant General Motors.
Posco Chemical is also planning to expand into Europe though it has not announced specific plans as of yet.
Meanwhile, the company will be spending 600 billion won this year to build a precursor facility at its factory at Gwangyang.
The new facility will have an annual production capacity of around 100,000 metric tonnes, enough to produce around 200,000 metric tonnes of cathode.
Compatriot cathode maker EcoPro is also expanding its production facilities in Pohang.
The pair will likely compete to bring costs down by continuing their efforts to procure raw materials such as nickel and lithium on their own, the sources added.