POSCO Chemical Accelerates Preparation for Future Car Era... Expansion and Completion of Cathode Material Plant in Gwangyang

by Hwang Yoonju

Published 14 May.2020 13:57(KST)

POSCO Chemical Accelerates Preparation for Future Car Era... Expansion and Completion of Cathode Material Plant in Gwangyang

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO Chemical is accelerating preparations for the future car era, which is emerging as a core in the post-COVID-19 era. The company is expanding and fully operating its mass production system for high-nickel cathode materials, a key component of rapidly growing electric vehicle batteries.

On the 14th, POSCO Chemical held a completion ceremony for the second phase of the cathode material production line with an annual capacity of 25,000 tons at its Gwangyang plant under construction in Gwangyang, Jeollanam-do. The event was attended by Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeollanam-do; Kim Myung-hwan, President of LG Chem; and other local community and customer representatives, as well as POSCO Chemical President Min Kyung-joon, POSCO New Growth Division Vice President Oh Kyu-seok, POSCO Engineering & Construction President Han Sung-hee, RIST Director Yoo Sung, POSCO ICT President Son Geon-jae, and other key executives of the POSCO Group.

With this completion, POSCO Chemical significantly increased the production capacity of its Gwangyang plant, which produces high-nickel cathode materials for electric vehicle batteries, from 5,000 tons to 30,000 tons annually. Including the Gumi plant, which operates on a multi-product small-lot production system with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons, the company now secures an annual cathode material production capacity of 40,000 tons.

The expansion completion of the Gwangyang plant is significant as it timely establishes a mass production base for high-nickel cathode materials, whose demand is rapidly increasing alongside the so-called quantum jump growth of the electric vehicle market. Despite heightened global economic uncertainties due to COVID-19 and other factors, POSCO Group’s proactive investment in the battery materials business as a new growth engine has enabled continued future growth.

Since August 2018, POSCO Chemical has been constructing a high-nickel NCM cathode material plant on a 162,030㎡ site?equivalent to 20 soccer fields?in the Yulchon Industrial Complex in Gwangyang. Because the higher the nickel content in cathode materials, the greater the battery efficiency, high-nickel cathode materials are mainly used in electric vehicle batteries.

With this expansion, POSCO Chemical plans to further expand the Gwangyang plant, which now has an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons, up to 90,000 tons depending on market conditions. This amount is sufficient to supply approximately 750,000 high-performance electric vehicle batteries of 60 kWh capacity. The cathode materials produced at the Gwangyang plant are supplied to electric vehicle battery production lines in Korea as well as Europe, China, and the United States.

The Gwangyang plant has secured competitiveness through high productivity and stable quality control by applying POSCO Group’s cutting-edge smart factory technology. This includes a system that automatically transports raw materials, precursors, semi-finished products, and finished products in real time, operating an automated warehouse, and running an integrated control center that unifies product design, process management, and shipment management.

POSCO Chemical expressed confidence in the expansion, stating, "The global electric vehicle market is rapidly growing from 6.1 million units in 2019 to 8.5 million units in 2020, and is expected to reach 22 million units by 2025, a quantum jump. Accordingly, the cathode material market is projected to grow from 460,000 tons in 2019 to 610,000 tons in 2020, and to 2.75 million tons by 2025, with an average annual growth rate of over 33%. Therefore, it is necessary to continue investing to respond promptly to demand.”