Pohang City Rises as a Leading Global Secondary Battery Hub Beyond K-Battery

Completion of the World's Largest Cathode Material Plant EcoPro EM CAM7, Secondary Battery Specialized Complex Progressing Steadily

Active Follow-up Investments by Secondary Battery Companies ... Co-growth with Secondary Battery Specialization and

Pohang City Rises as a Leading Global Secondary Battery Hub Beyond K-Battery.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] On the 21st, Pohang City held a completion ceremony for the EcoPro EM CAM 7 factory within the Eco Battery Pohang Campus in Yeongilman 4th General Industrial Complex.

The completion ceremony was attended by about 300 people, including Vice Mayor Jang-sik Lee, Deputy Governor of Gyeongbuk Province for Economy Dal-hee Lee, Vice Chairman of the City Council Il-man Kim, EcoPro Chairman Dong-chae Lee, EcoPro EM CEO Jong-hwan Park, Samsung SDI CEO Yoon-ho Choi, and related organization officials.

The CAM 7 factory of EcoPro EM, a joint venture established by EcoPro BM, a high-nickel cathode material specialist, and Samsung SDI, a global battery leading company, is the largest single cathode material production plant with an investment of 150 billion KRW, a site area of 61,020㎡, and a building area of 15,058㎡, capable of producing 54,000 tons of high-nickel cathode materials annually.

With the completion of the CAM 7 factory equipped with state-of-the-art systems, full-scale mass production will begin in the first quarter of 2023, and EcoPro will expand its secondary battery cathode material production capacity to a total of 150,000 tons in Pohang alone.

EcoPro, which has early secured high value-added secondary battery materials, has created the Eco Battery Pohang Campus on about 100,000 pyeong of land in Yeongilman 1st and 4th Industrial Complexes, where EcoPro Materials, EcoPro BM, EcoPro EM, EcoPro Innovation, and EcoPro AP are located, maximizing the synergy effect of affiliated companies.

Currently, a facility investment of 1.2 trillion KRW is underway at the Pohang Campus, and it is expected to greatly contribute to revitalizing the local economy and creating new jobs through large-scale investment and employment, including a total investment of 3 trillion KRW and the creation of 3,000 jobs in the region by 2026.

Group photo at the completion ceremony of Ecopro Pohang Campus CAM7.

Based on large-scale investments by representative anchor companies in the local secondary battery industry such as EcoPro, POSCO Chemical, and GS Construction, the industrial map of Pohang City, which was steel-centered, is rapidly changing, and the ecosystem of the secondary battery sector is being formed through precursor materials, cathode materials, anode materials, and reuse and recycling of waste batteries, leading to active follow-up investments by secondary battery companies.

Vice Mayor Jang-sik Lee said, “Despite the rapid changes in the battery market amid the global economic downturn trend and the implementation of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), EcoPro’s continuous investment will become a new driving force for Pohang, which aims to become a global battery leading city by creating a secondary battery specialized complex and a global battery innovation special zone,” and added, “We will provide active support and cooperation so that EcoPro, which is emerging as a global representative company in the secondary battery field, and Pohang City can grow together.”

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