South Korean battery materials producer EcoPro BM announced it has completed construction of its new cathode materials plant in Hungary, marking a key milestone in the company’s expansion into Europe’s electric vehicle (EV) supply chain.
EcoPro BM said it has received significant interest in its cathode products from European automakers and battery producers, following the implementation last year of the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) in 2024. Among these is South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI, which has a battery plant in the country.
EcoPro BM Hungary, the company’s local subsidiary, held an event to celebrate the opening of the new plant, located in Hungary’s second-largest city in Debrecen. The facility has a production capacity of 54,000 tons of cathode materials per year, enough for around 600,000 EVs, and can process 8,000 tons of lithium hydroxide annually and produce 16,000 cubic meters of oxygen per hour.
Lee Dong-chae, founder of EcoPro BM’s parent company EcoPro, speaking at the opening event, said: “This is the first European production base built by a South Korean cathode producer, completed in just three years, thanks to Hungary’s swift one-stop support. At a moment of rapid change in Europe’s EV industry, this marks a new beginning for EcoPro and the region.”
Hungary has established itself as a major EV battery manufacturing hub in Europe, having attracted investments from Samsung SDI, SK On, CATL and BMW in the last few years. EcoPro said its Hungarian facility will use low-cost nickel sourced from its Indonesian refinery to strengthen its European competitiveness, as well as making use of advanced plant automation.
EcoPro plans to double the facility’s annual production capacity to 108,000 tons of cathode materials from next year, with the introduction of high-nickel ternary cathodes, including nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) and nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) cathodes. It also plans to produce mid-range cathode products for mid-nickel and lithium iron phosphate batteries. Following this investment, EcoPro’s global cathode production capacity will increase to 300,000 tons per year.
