Gangwon Energy Expands Coverage in Cathode Material Heat Treatment... "Aiming Precisely at the 94 Trillion Won Cathode Material Market"

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Hyowon] As the electric vehicle market continues its rapid growth, a shortage of cathode material supply is expected by 2025, and Gangwon Energy is accelerating the expansion of coverage for secondary battery cathode material manufacturing equipment.

Gangwon Energy announced on the 26th that it will officially enter the 'sintering furnace' sector, a key heat treatment equipment in the secondary battery manufacturing process. To this end, it recently held discussions on collaboration and technology transfer with a Japanese sintering furnace specialist company and is also in talks with domestic specialized companies.

Following electric heater dryers, iron removers, classifiers, and rotary coolers, once the entry into the sintering furnace market is completed, Gangwon Energy's secondary battery cathode material manufacturing equipment business is expected to gain significant momentum.

The sintering furnace is one of the core processes in cathode material production. It is a heat treatment device that mixes cathode material raw materials such as precursor, lithium, and cobalt through sintering (a process of mixing different materials using heat). Since cathode materials are produced by multiple sintering steps and the addition of additives, the design of the sintering furnace determines the yield and productivity of the cathode materials.

Cathode materials are key components that determine battery capacity and lifespan. The manufacturing process sequence includes pretreatment, primary sintering, post-treatment, and secondary sintering. The sintering furnace is applied in ▲primary sintering at about 700~900℃ to synthesize lithium metal oxide by oxidation of the mixture from the pretreatment process ▲secondary sintering at about 300~400℃ after mixing the semi-finished product from the post-treatment process with coating materials for surface safety.

A company official stated, “Gangwon Energy has grown mainly in the eco-friendly plant business based on thermal design and thermal management technology, so it possesses technology, market competitiveness, and know-how in the thermal management field.” He added, “Since the change of the major shareholder to Pyeongsan Partners, combined with Pyeongsan Group’s technological capabilities, the electric heater dryer, which started development in July last year, was completed in five months, and a new patent application was filed with the Korean Intellectual Property Office, receiving a priority examination decision.”

He continued, “As we have secured outstanding technological capabilities in the thermal management field, we plan to achieve visible business results through the promotion of the sintering furnace business,” adding, “Since orders and collaborations for secondary battery cathode material processes are already underway with companies such as EcoPro BM and POSCO Chemical, synergy is expected by expanding the equipment scope to include sintering furnaces.”

The sintering furnace is also essential equipment for anode material production, and the market outlook is bright. The industry estimates the domestic sintering furnace market size to be around 300 billion KRW. Hanwha and Wonjun are considered representative domestic cathode material sintering furnace companies, with Hanwha supplying sintering furnaces to EcoPro BM and Wonjun to POSCO Chemical. POSCO Chemical and EcoPro BM plan to expand their domestic and overseas cathode material factories, so further market growth is anticipated.

Meanwhile, according to battery and semiconductor market research firm SNE Research, global battery cathode material demand is expected to increase more than eightfold from 730,000 tons in 2020 to 6.05 million tons in 2030. During the same period, the market size is also expected to grow significantly from $13.2 billion (approximately 16 trillion KRW) in 2020 to $78.3 billion (approximately 94.5 trillion KRW) in 2030. Accordingly, there are predictions that a cathode material supply shortage could occur by 2025.

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