Pohang City Secures All Government Battery Projects... New Growth Battery Industry 'Tailwind'

450 Billion Invested in Establishing Electric Vehicle Used Battery Resource Recycling Cluster Project

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Jae-ho] Pohang City, Gyeongbuk, is emerging as the "heart of South Korea's battery industry" by securing all government battery projects.

On the 14th, Pohang City announced that it secured 6.8 billion KRW in national funds related to the battery industry, including 1.5 billion KRW for the new project next year, "Establishment of a Resource Circulation Cluster for Used Electric Vehicle Batteries," and 5.3 billion KRW for the next-generation battery recycling regulatory free zone project.

With this, Pohang City has secured all major government projects related to batteries following the battery regulatory free zone project, enabling it to fulfill its role as a genuine heart city of the battery industry.

The "Establishment of a Resource Circulation Cluster for Used Electric Vehicle Batteries" project, with a total budget of 45 billion KRW over four years starting in 2021, is one of the Ministry of Environment's key projects. Once the cluster is established, it will be possible to extract expensive battery materials such as cobalt, manganese, and nickel, which are currently entirely imported, while establishing an environmentally friendly processing and recycling system.

Since the designation of the special zone last year, Pohang City held a future vision declaration ceremony as the "Secondary Battery City Pohang." Earlier this year, in January, the city held an investment attraction agreement ceremony with GS Construction attended by the President, expanded the recycling regulatory free zone, and attracted large-scale investments from secondary battery companies such as EcoPro and POSCO Chemical, focusing administrative power on the secondary battery industry.

A city official said, "We were able to secure national funds for the 'Establishment of a Resource Circulation Cluster for Used Electric Vehicle Batteries' project by leveraging the nation's only battery regulatory free zone," adding, "As the only city to attract battery projects from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Environment, Pohang will continue to do its best to discover and attract battery-related projects."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.