POSCO Group establishes battery recycling ecosystem with new plant

The completion ceremony of a secondary battery recycling plant for POSCO HY Clean Metal held in South Jeolla Province on July 7. [Photo provided by POSCO Holdings]

POSCO Group, owner of South Korea’s biggest steel mill, has established a self-sustaining ecosystem for secondary battery recycling following the completion of its new plant in South Jeolla Province.

According to POSCO Holdings Inc. on Sunday, POSCO Group held a ceremony on Friday to celebrate the completion of a secondary battery recycling plant for POSCO HY Clean Metal, a joint venture between POSCO Holdings, China’s Huayou Cobalt Co., and GS Energy Corp.

The company specializes in secondary battery recycling.

The new plant will process black powder from waste batteries and recover raw materials such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium carbonate for secondary batteries.

The plant has an annual capacity to process 12,000 tons of black powder and secure 2,500 tons of nickel, 800 tons of cobalt, and 2,500 tons of lithium carbonate.

The new plant represents the culmination of POSCO Group’s efforts to establish a recycling ecosystem for its secondary battery business, along with the group‘s secondary battery recycling plant that was built in Poland in August 2022.

At the Polish plant, secondary battery scraps and waste batteries are processed to produce black powder, which is then supplied to the POSCO HY Clean Metal plant in Korea to extract raw metals for secondary battery materials.

“We plan to develop POSCO Group into a global leader in secondary battery materials with continued investment in various areas, including anode materials, precursors, lithium, and recycling,” said POSCO Holdings Chief Executive Officer Choi Jeong-woo.