LS-L&F Battery Solution (LLBS), a joint venture between LS Corporation and L&F Company, announced that it has completed construction of a new battery materials plant in the Saemangeum industrial complex, in South Korea’s North Jeolla Province.
The KRW 1 trillion (US$ 708 million) facility is scheduled to begin trial production in the fourth quarter of 2025. It has an initial production capacity of 20,000 tons of battery precursor materials per year, with plans to expand this sixfold to 120,000 tons by 2029 – enough for 1.3 million electric vehicles (EVs). Precursors are intermediate materials consisting of minerals such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and aluminum, which are used in the production of battery cathode materials.
Commercial production at the facility is scheduled to begin early next year, once LS Group’s non-ferrous metals smelting affiliate, LS MnM, completes construction of a nearby nickel sulfate feeder plant at the end of 2025, which will have a production capacity of 62,000 tons by 2029. Nickel sulfate is a key material used in precursors.
An L&F spokesperson said in a statement: “At a time when the global precursor supply chain is being reorganized, the Saemangeum plant will serve as a strategic hub for localization and for reducing dependence on China. We will further strengthen the trust of our global clients by reliably supplying cathode materials for everything from premium electric vehicles and mass-market electric vehicles to large-scale energy storage systems (ESS).”
