POSCO Inter, Permanent Magnets for Electric Vehicles Supplied to US and German Automakers

No Use of Chinese Rare Earths... Evaluation of 탈중국 Supply Chain Establishment

POSCO International (POSCO Inter) will supply rare earth permanent magnets for electric vehicles to a U.S. automaker. POSCO International is producing products that exclude the use of Chinese rare earths, establishing a 'de-China' supply chain.

On the 12th, POSCO Inter's U.S. subsidiary announced that it recently signed a permanent magnet supply contract worth 900 billion KRW with a U.S. automaker. The supply period is from 2026 to 2031. The supplied permanent magnets will be installed in the drive motors of the automaker's medium and large new electric vehicle models.

POSCO Inter's German subsidiary also signed a permanent magnet supply contract worth 260 billion KRW with a European premium automaker. The supply period is from 2025 to 2034.

Eco-friendly car (hydrogen car) model equipped with Posco International's rotor motor core [Photo by Posco International]

Rare earth permanent magnets are a type of magnet used in the drive motors, the heart of electric vehicles. Their magnetic force is tens of times stronger compared to ordinary magnets. Over 80% of electric vehicle drive motors use rare earth permanent magnets.

Currently, over 90% of rare earths in the global market are sourced from China. However, the permanent magnets ordered by POSCO Inter use raw materials sourced from the U.S., Australia, and Vietnam, not from China. This establishes a 'de-China' supply chain in the permanent magnet market, where Chinese raw materials dominate. Production will be handled by Seongrim Advanced Industry, the only domestic rare earth permanent magnet manufacturer.

POSCO Inter plans to expand its value chain to strengthen its position as a supplier of core components for eco-friendly vehicle drive systems. A POSCO Inter official said, "This order is significant in that we entered the global market through collaboration with domestic companies in the rare earth permanent magnet market monopolized by China," adding, "We are currently in discussions for additional orders with multiple automakers and drive motor manufacturers."

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