Development of New Lightweight Materials for Vehicles... POSCO and SK Join Hands

Core Materials for Future Mobility
Proactive Response to Changes in the Car Parts Market
Collaboration in Volunteer and Eco-friendly Projects

Chairman Chey Tae-won of SK Group (first on the right) and Chairman Choi Jung-woo of POSCO Group (center) are posing for a commemorative photo in front of the "Hope Sharing Lunchboxes" they prepared at a restaurant in Songdo-dong, Nam-gu, Pohang City, Gyeongbuk, last January.

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO and SK General Chemical, a petrochemical subsidiary of SK Innovation, have agreed to join forces to develop lightweight new materials, which are key to future mobility such as electric vehicles. SK Group, pursuing social value creation, and POSCO, pursuing corporate citizenship, have been enhancing synergy by cooperating in eco-friendly businesses following their joint volunteer activity sharing Hope Lunchboxes with group chairmen at the end of January.

On the morning of the 8th, POSCO and SK General Chemical announced that their management teams signed a business agreement at the POSCO Center in Daechi-dong, Seoul, to develop lightweight composite materials for vehicles. This agreement was reached as both companies recognized the need to develop innovative vehicle materials proactively in response to changes in the vehicle parts market due to the global expansion of the electric vehicle market.

Under this business agreement, both companies will conduct research and development on steel-plastic composite materials that are lighter and stronger compared to conventional vehicle parts, based on their respective plastic and steel material production and processing technologies. In particular, they plan to explore R&D on composite materials applicable to electric vehicle battery pack production, plastic materials that maximize adhesion with steel materials, and vehicle parts materials such as automotive frames that have high resistance to external impacts.

The cooperation between SK and POSCO is expected to deepen further. Earlier, Hyundai Motor, SK, and POSCO agreed to launch a 'Hydrogen Council (tentative name)' in the first half of this year to build a hydrogen ecosystem. Hyundai Motor aims to lead the electric and hydrogen vehicle markets, while SK and POSCO plan to expand mobility infrastructure and the new materials market.

SK Group aims to become the world's number one hydrogen company in the value chain from hydrogen production, distribution, to consumption by investing 18.5 trillion KRW over the next five years in domestic hydrogen business infrastructure and partnerships with global companies. As the first phase, by 2023, SK plans to supply 30,000 tons of liquefied hydrogen?the world's largest scale?based on by-product hydrogen in connection with Incheon City's 'Bio and By-product Hydrogen Production Cluster Project,' and gradually convert about 1,500 vehicles operating at business sites to hydrogen electric vehicles produced by Hyundai Motor.

POSCO also plans to gradually convert 1,500 vehicles operating at its Pohang and Gwangyang steelworks to Hyundai Motor's hydrogen electric vehicles. Additionally, POSCO will cooperate with Hyundai Motor to build hydrogen charging stations within the steelworks. Hyundai Motor intends to use POSCO's green hydrogen to promote next-generation fuel cell power generation projects.

Kim Hak-dong, CEO of POSCO, said, "We will prepare for the future eco-friendly vehicle era not only with existing steel-based vehicle materials but also through joint development with other materials such as plastics," adding, "We will further cooperate with SK General Chemical to discover solutions that maximize the strengths of both companies." Na Kyung-soo, CEO of SK General Chemical, also said, "With the synergy between the two companies producing and processing chemical and steel materials, we expect the development of new vehicle materials suitable for the future car era to progress rapidly."

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