Pohang City Selected as Grand Prize Winner in Korea's Leading Brand Battery Industry City Category

Selected as 'Grand Prize' for 2 Consecutive Years Following Last Year, Emerging as the Optimal Site for Secondary Battery Specialized Complex

Recognized as Korea's Top Battery Industry City ... Green Light for Secondary Battery Specialized Complex

Pohang City has solidified its position as a leading K-Battery city by being selected for the grand prize in the ‘Battery Industry City’ category at the 2023 Korea Representative Brand Awards for the second consecutive year.

Pohang City was selected as the grand prize winner in the "Battery Industry City Category" at the "2023 Korea Representative Brand Awards" ceremony held on the 18th at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul.

Fully committed to creating a second Yeongilman Miracle through a major leap in the local economy by fostering the secondary battery new growth industry, Pohang achieved the remarkable feat of winning the grand prize in the ‘Battery Industry City’ category at the ‘2023 Korea Representative Brand Awards’ ceremony held on the 18th at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul.

The ‘Korea Representative Brand’ is hosted by DongA.com, IMBC, and Hankyung.com, and since 2006, consumers have directly selected specialized companies, local governments, and public institutions by category every year.

Among the six local governments participating as candidates in the battery industry city category, Pohang was clearly ranked first in awareness, marketing activities, and brand preference evaluation items, winning the grand prize for the second consecutive year.

Since 2017, Pohang has been focusing on nurturing the secondary battery industry as its next-generation growth industry through investments by EcoPro and the designation of the battery regulatory free zone in 2019, attracting corporate investments totaling over 4 trillion KRW to date from EcoPro, POSCO Future M, Energy Materials (GS Construction), and China’s CNGR.

In particular, with the rapid growth of the electric vehicle market and the announcement of detailed rules for the U.S. IRA electric vehicle subsidies, domestic secondary battery companies’ investments in Korea are expected to become more active, and the advantage of Pohang having the nation’s only full-cycle ecosystem for secondary battery cathode materials (raw materials, recycling ? precursor production ? cathode material production) is leading to investments in Pohang.

In March, POSCO Holdings relocated its headquarters to Pohang and signed a memorandum of understanding to invest 300 billion KRW by 2025 to build a next-generation silicon anode material factory in the Yeongilman General Industrial Complex.

Additionally, EcoPro announced an investment plan to invest more than 2 trillion KRW in building the EcoPro Blue Valley Campus in the Pohang Blue Valley National Industrial Complex and plans to expand cathode material production capacity to 650,000 tons by 2027.

The current cathode material production of 150,000 tons in Pohang is the largest scale in Korea, and it is expected to achieve an annual production of 1 million tons by 2030, covering more than 16% of global demand.

Furthermore, when combined with the scale of the related upstream industries such as raw materials and precursor production, the total exceeds 2 million tons, and Pohang is expected to grow into a global production base for core secondary battery materials.

Moreover, on the 11th, the city signed a talent development agreement with Handong University and EcoPro, and together with Gyeongbuk Province, plans to invest 3 billion KRW to fully launch a two-track strategy for nurturing field and research personnel. These corporate investments and talent development strategies are expected to support the bid for the designation of a ‘Secondary Battery Specialized Complex,’ which Gyeongbuk Province and Pohang City have been actively promoting since February by mobilizing regional capabilities.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok of Pohang said, “Considering the reality of relying on imports for core secondary battery materials, the industrial and economic value of Pohang, which has a full-cycle ecosystem from raw materials to cathode material recycling, is limitless,” adding, “With the designation of the secondary battery specialized complex, Pohang will leap forward as a world-class secondary battery industrial city.”

The ‘National Advanced Strategic Industry Specialized Complex’ final selection results are scheduled to be announced by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in June, and upon designation, benefits such as national funding support for industrial infrastructure and expedited processing of permits and approvals are expected to promote investments from domestic and foreign companies.

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