Posco HY Clean Metal breaks ground on battery recycling plant

Posco HY Clean Metal on Thursday broke ground on a 120 billion won ($101.3 million) secondary battery recycling plant in Yulchon Industrial Complex in South Jeolla.

Chung Chang-hwa, head of new growth business unit at Posco, and others pose for a photo at the groundbreaking ceremony for a Posco HY Clean Metal battery recycling plant held Thursday in South Jeolla. The company is 65:35 joint venture between Posco and Huayou Cobalt. [POSCO]

Posco HY Clean Metal on Thursday broke ground on a 120 billion won ($101.3 million) secondary battery recycling plant in Yulchon Industrial Complex in South Jeolla.

Posco HY Clean Metal is a 65:35 joint venture between Posco, the country’s largest steelmaker, and Tongxiang City, Zhejiang-based Huayou Cobalt.

The company plans to extract 12,000 tons of nickel, lithium and cobalt from scrap batteries annually at the plant, scheduled for completion by the second half of 2022.

“Posco HY Clean Metal’s battery recycling business, which enables the company to sell raw materials like nickel and lithium extracted from scrap batteries, will become a future growth engine for Posco,” said Chung Chang-hwa, head of new growth business unit at the steelmaker. “By continuous investment and technology development we will become a global supplier of secondary battery materials.” According to Posco, the battery recycling market is expected to grow into a 28-trillion-won market by 2040 boosted by the growth of the electric car market.

Posco said in a statement that it is considering expanding scrap battery recycling facilities considering future demand.

Posco has been pushing to boost its electric car battery-related business in recent years to diversify its sources of profit.

The company plans to self-supply 220,000 tons of lithium and 100,000 tons of nickel by 2030 and produce 400,000 tons of cathode materials and 260,000 tons of anode materials, both of which are key materials for electric car batteries, through its subsidiaries like Posco Chemical, and achieve annual sales of 23 trillion won from its secondary battery business.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]