Posco Future M Company, the battery materials unit of South Korea’s steel and chemicals group Posco Holdings, has completed the construction of a new precursor plant in the southern port city of Gwangyang, reducing the company’s dependence on cathode materials suppliers from China.
With this new plant, the company confirmed that it has established a battery cathode supply chain that does not rely on raw materials from Chinese suppliers. The new facility, located within the company’s existing cathode production complex in South Jeolla Province, has a production capacity of 45,000 tons of battery precursor materials per year – enough to power approximately 500,000 electric vehicles.
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The new facility will produce precursors for high-nickel, cobalt and manganese (NCM) cathodes, to be shipped to Ultium Cells LLC, LG Energy Solution’s US battery manufacturing joint venture with General Motors. The plant will improve the company’s eligibility for US tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which excludes battery materials sourced from “Foreign Entities of Concern” (FEOCs), including China.
Posco Future M’s president, Eom Gi-chen, said at the plant’s opening event: “This facility allows us to build a fully independent supply chain for battery materials,” pointing out that it will allow the company to significantly reduce its reliance on Chinese suppliers and improve its global competitiveness.
