South Korea’s LG Chem announced it had started construction of a new factory to produce high-nickel cathode materials for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, as the group looks to strengthen its battery materials supply capabilities.
The KRW500bn (US$419bn) facility is being built on a 60,000 sq m site in Gumi, an industrial city 250km south of Seoul. It will have a production capacity of 60,000 tons of NCMA (nickel, cobalt, manganese, aluminum) cathode material by 2025, enough to produce 500,000 next generation EV battery packs.
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Cathodes are key components which determine the capacity and average voltage of lithium-ion batteries. LG Chem’s NCMA cathodes contain 90% nickel, giving them a high energy density.
LG Chem had previously announced plans to triple its global cathode production capacity by 2026, to 260,000 tons a year from 80,000 tons at present. It is also focused on the development of cobalt-free batteries to help reduce its exposure to raw materials price fluctuations, as well as single crystal cathodes for solid state EV batteries.
