Choi Jung-woo and Heo Tae-soo Unite for New Businesses in Mobility and Hydrogen

POSCO-GS Group Exchange Meeting... Seeking Cooperation Through Annual Exchange Meetings

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO Group and GS Group will regularly meet to discuss business cooperation and establish a foundation for future growth. Executives and working-level staff from both groups plan to explore new businesses such as mobility and hydrogen annually through an 'exchange meeting.'

On the afternoon of the 7th, POSCO Group and GS Group held the 'POSCO-GS Group Exchange Meeting' at GS Tower in Yeoksam-dong, attended by top management from both sides, to discuss cooperation plans for core new businesses such as secondary battery recycling, new mobility, and hydrogen projects.

Attending the exchange meeting were POSCO Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo, head of POSCO Global Infrastructure Division, head of New Growth Division, head of Industrial Gas Hydrogen Business Division, head of Management Support Headquarters, CEO of POSCO Energy, and head of POSCO International Food Materials Division. From GS Group, Chairman Huh Tae-soo, GS Corporation President Hong Soon-gi, Chief Financial Officer (President), Head of Future Business Team (Executive Director), GS Energy President Heo Yong-soo, and GS Caltex Strategic Planning Office Head (Executive Director) participated.

Chairman Choi said, "With the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and carbon neutrality issues, large-scale investments and business structure reforms have become constants in corporate management. This exchange meeting is meaningful in establishing a framework for group-level cooperation across various business fields, including the rapidly growing eco-friendly markets such as hydrogen and batteries. We hope that cooperation between the two groups will bear fruit at the national level."

Chairman Huh also stated, "If the two companies cooperate based on their capabilities, assets, and solid existing businesses, new synergies can be created. In particular, I hope this will be an opportunity to jointly discover and grow future businesses centered on eco-friendliness combined with digital technology, contributing to value creation for customers and society."

First, POSCO Group and GS Group discussed cooperation in the fields of 'secondary battery recycling and new mobility.' In May, POSCO established 'POSCO HY Clean Metal' in a joint venture with Huayou Cobalt, promoting a secondary battery recycling business that uses process scrap generated during secondary battery manufacturing as the main raw material.

By 2029, the amount of waste batteries is expected to exceed the amount of process scrap generated during secondary battery manufacturing. As the importance of waste battery collection grows, POSCO Group plans to establish a joint venture (JV) for supplying raw materials for secondary battery recycling by utilizing GS Group's automobile maintenance, refueling, and global networks. Additionally, based on technology that GS Energy is investing in to diagnose and evaluate electric vehicle battery conditions, the cooperation scope will expand to the BaaS (Battery as a Service) business, which includes maintenance, reuse, or recycling decisions for waste batteries.

In the 'hydrogen business' sector, the two groups aim to strengthen competitiveness and contribute to the activation of the domestic hydrogen economy through cooperation across the entire value chain?from blue and green hydrogen production to storage, transportation, and utilization?by jointly participating in overseas projects and discovering new demand sources. To this end, the head of POSCO's Industrial Gas Hydrogen Business Division and the head of GS Energy's Energy Resources Business Division signed a memorandum of understanding for hydrogen business cooperation representing both groups.

In the 'eco-friendly bio business' sector, POSCO International will collaborate with GS Caltex by leveraging its palm plantations and processing facilities along with GS Caltex's biofuel production technology and sales infrastructure to expand the palm refined oil business and develop next-generation biofuels such as bio-aviation fuel based on renewable raw materials.

Furthermore, the two groups discussed broad cooperation plans including joint discovery of promising companies in the secondary battery and hydrogen sectors using their venture investment infrastructure, and promoting carbon reduction activities at major business sites as part of ESG management.

Going forward, POSCO Group and GS Group plan to ensure practical results through working-level discussions based on the agreements made by their management teams.

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