POSCO affirms commitment to secondary battery materials

POSCO Group Chairman Chang In-hwa. [Courtesy of POSCO Holdings Inc.]

POSCO Group Chairman Chang In-hwa announced that the South Korean steel giant will use the chasm, or temporary slowdown in demand, in the electric vehicle market as an opportunity to invest in new materials for secondary batteries during his first appearance on the global stage since taking office, POSCO Holdings Inc. said on Wednesday.

“The automotive market will eventually shift to electric vehicles,” Chang said during his keynote speech at the Global Steel Dynamics Forum in New York, the United States, on Tuesday (local time). “We will continue to take advantage of this chasm to solidify our fundamentals and continue to identify new investment opportunities.“

”We will also focus on securing competitiveness in raw materials such as lithium and nickel while completing the ‘full value chain’ from raw materials to cathode and anode materials, and next-generation battery material technology development by continuing to invest for early commercialization,“ he added.

His remarks hinted at the group’s strategy to use the industry adjustment period as an opportunity to reorganize its business and actively secure high-quality resources and next generation technologies. They were made during Chang’s first appearance on the global stage since he took office in March 2024, with around a week remaining in his ”100 days of on-site management.”

Since Chang took office in March 2024, has praised the secondary battery materials business alongside the steel business, calling them the “twin pillars” of the group, and emphasized his commitment to the struggling materials business. Industry watchers expect POSCO to expand its investments in key raw materials to Africa and Latin America, while accelerating efforts to complete constructing materials-related plants from the second half of 2024.

He met with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan earlier in June 2024 to strengthen their cooperative relationship in the supply of essential minerals for batteries. Tanzania is a crucial hub for all the essential minerals for battery manufacturing, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite, and is an important partner in the group‘s secondary battery materials business. POSCO International Corp. signed a long-term contract in 2023 to secure natural graphite from Tanzanian mines.

POSCO Group is also engaged in discussions on new investments with Latin American countries, with a notable example being its review of additional investments in lithium salt lakes in Argentina. It acquired the Hombre Muerto lithium Salt Lake in Argentina in 2018 and is constructing a facility to produce 50,000 tons of lithium brine annually for secondary batteries over two phases. The first phase, with an annual capacity of 25,000 tons, is scheduled for completion in 2024, and the second phase, with the same capacity, is expected to be completed the following year.

The company is also considering investing in a third-phase plant with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons of lithium brine.