Posco joint venture finishes EV battery recycling plant

A Posco Holdings joint venture completed a battery recycling plant in Korea on Friday.

Posco Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo, sixth from left, South Jeolla Governor Kim Yung-rok, seventh from left, Huayou Cobalt Chairman Chen Xuehua, fifth from left and GS Energy CEO Huh Yong-soo, fourth from left, pose for a photo during a completion ceremony of Posco HY Clean Metal's battery recycling plant in Yulchon Industrial Complex in South Jeolla on Friday. [POSCO HOLDINGS]

A Posco Holdings joint venture completed a battery recycling plant in Korea on Friday.

The recycling plant, located in Yulchon Industrial Complex in South Jeolla, will be able to process up to 12,000 tons of black powder extracted from scrap batteries annually and reclaim 2,500 tons of nickel, 800 tons of cobalt and 2,500 tons of lithium carbonate.

Posco HY Clean Metal, a joint venture of Posco Holdings, GS Energy, and Huayou Cobalt, a Tongxiang City, Zhejiang-based cobalt supplier, will operate the facility.

The Yulchon plant will be supplied with black powder produced at Posco Holdings’ plant in Poland, completed in August last year. The minerals reclaimed from Posco HY Clean Metal’s plant will be used to produce cathode materials at Posco Future M’s manufacturing facility, also located in Yulchon Industrial Complex.

Posco HY Clean Metal was established in 2021 as a 65:35 joint venture between Posco and Huayou Cobalt.

In October last year, Posco Holdings set up an EV battery recycling joint venture with GS Energy, named Posco-GS Eco Materials.

The company is wholly owned by Posco Holdings, according to its regulatory filing published on May 30, yet GS Energy will acquire 49 percent of Posco-GS Eco Materials by the end of this year.

Posco-GS Eco Materials own 65 percent of Posco-HY Clean Metal, while Huayou Cobalt owns the rest.

The completion ceremony of the latest battery recycling plant was held Friday, with Posco Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo, South Jeolla Governor Kim Yung-rok, Huayou Cobalt Chairman Chen Xuehua and GS Energy CEO Huh Yong-soo in attendance.

“We will turn Posco Group into a leading global company in EV battery materials through continued investments into cathode materials, precursor, lithium, battery recycling and more,” said Choi during the ceremony,

Meanwhile, Posco Holdings broke ground on a 575-billion-won ($451.5-million) production plant for lithium hydroxide for EV batteries at the Yulchon complex in June, which is slated for completion in 2025.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]