POSCO Chemical '21 OP doubles on yr on best sales on battery materials demand

POSCO Chemical"s cathode Material Gwangyang Plant. [Photo by POSCO Chemical Co.]

POSCO Chemical Co., the refractory and secondary battery materials arm of South Korea’s steel giant POSCO, reported its operating profit more than doubled from a year earlier on record revenue on stronger demand and prices for materials in rechargeables.

In its regulatory filing on Wednesday, POSCO Chemical said its consolidated operating profit for the quarter ended December reached 21.46 billion won ($17.09 million), down 35 percent from a quarter ago and 1.9 percent from a year earlier.

Its net profit shed 53 percent on quarter but gained 21.5 percent on year to 19.21 billion won, while sales added 6.4 percent from three months ago and 19.4 percent against a year earlier.

POSCO Chemical shares finished Wednesday 2.92 percent lower at 116,500 won.

For the full 2021, POSCO Chemical raked in 121.7 billion won in operating profit, up 101.9 percent from the previous year. Net profit soared 349.7 percent to 133.8 billion won, while sales jumped 27 percent to largest-ever 1.99 trillion won.

The battery materials business delivered 851.8 billion won in revenue last year, up 59.7 percent from the previous year on expanded sales of high-nickel cathode materials and increased prices of raw materials like lithium and nickel.

Since its foray into the cathode materials business through the merger with POSCO EMS in 2019, revenue from cathode and anode materials business grew 289 percent to take up 42.8 percent of the company’s total revenue. The battery materials division contributed only 14.8 percent to total revenue in 2019.

The lime chemical business raised 675.3 billion won in sales, up 16.4 percent on year on increased sales of lime products and price rises following oil price hike. Sales from the refractories business also rose to 462.5 billion won.

POSCO Chemical’s subsidiary PMC Tech which engages in production of needle cokes, the raw materials for synthetic graphite anode materials, also performed well with full-year revenue up 53.7 percent on year. Operating margin reached 22.1 percent.

To better respond to rapid growth of EV market, POSCO Chemical plans to focus on expanding production capacity and strengthening R&C capability to meet the rising demand for next-gen battery materials. As part of the efforts, it is building a cathode materials factory in Gwangyang with an annual capacity of the world’s largest 90,000 tons to be operational in May and is planning to ramp up output from existing and new lines in North America, China and Pohang.

As for anode materials, POSCO Chemical will expand production facilities for natural graphite and start production of synthetic graphite anode materials to diversify the portfolio.

The company targets to achieve an annual capacity of 105,000 tons for cathode materials and 84,000 tons for anode materials this year.

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