Jungang D&M-EDL Secures Land for Lithium Salt Manufacturing Facility... "Land Payment Completed"

Jungang D&M announced on the 12th that IDEL has signed a land sale contract worth 17 billion KRW with the Korea Rural Community Corporation for the lithium salt manufacturing facility being established within the Saemangeum National Industrial Complex, and has completed the full payment of the land price including the remaining balance. With the completion of this payment, the lithium salt manufacturing facility acquisition project by the joint venture 'IDEL' between Jungang D&M and Enchem is expected to gain further momentum.

IDEL signed a tenancy contract for the lithium salt manufacturing facility with the Saemangeum Development Authority on the 3rd. This land sale contract was signed about a week after the tenancy contract was concluded.

A financial industry official stated, “The rapid signing of the contract and payment of the land price for such a large-scale project indicates a significant confirmation of the project's sincerity and the intention to advance into the U.S. market.”

Typically, there is a five-month grace period for the payment of the remaining balance, so immediate payment is impossible without securing financial capacity in advance. Recently, there have been many cases where only secondary mortgages were added to articles of incorporation without any real substance, disrupting the market, so this payment strongly signifies the sincerity of the project.

The Saemangeum lithium salt project, promoted through IDEL by Enchem, the world's 4th largest electrolyte market share company, and Jungang D&M, is a project to invest approximately 600 billion KRW by 2026 to secure a lithium salt manufacturing facility with a maximum capacity of 50,000 tons.

With the completion of this contract and payment, IDEL plans to commence construction as early as August. By the end of next year, they will invest in facilities on a 34,000-pyeong site to initially secure a production capacity (CAPA) of 20,000 tons. Through this, they plan to become the only company in the world, excluding China, to possess a lithium salt production capacity exceeding 20,000 tons.

A company official said, “By completing the land acquisition, the first step of the Saemangeum lithium salt project, we have established a solid foundation for full-scale business progress,” adding, “We will continue meaningful steps to demonstrate the localization of secondary battery materials and grow into the world’s number one materials company.”

IDEL is expected to begin full-scale lithium salt production in 2025. Industry insiders anticipate that the benefits for IDEL and Enchem will be maximized as regulations under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) become stricter starting in 2025.

Meanwhile, according to data released by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) on the 6th, Enchem was included in the economic delegation for President Yoon Suk-yeol’s official visit to Poland on the 12th. Poland is one of Enchem’s key production bases for global market expansion, and Enchem plans to increase the electrolyte production capacity of its Polish plant to about 40,000 tons by the end of this year.

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