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POSCO becomes Korea's first lithium ion secondary battery producer

POSCO becomes Korea's first lithium ion secondary battery producer

Posted February. 08, 2017 07:04,   

Updated February. 08, 2017 07:17

한국어
POSCO has opened Korea's first lithium ion secondary battery plant, as demand for lithium ion batteries is set to rise sharply thanks to the growing electric vehicle market. With POSCO setting eyes to strengthen non-steel business and push ahead with developing materials for future industries, the latest transformation efforts by POSCO is being assessed as an effort to produce seeds for future industries.

POSCO held a ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday for its lithium ion battery production plant PosLX constructed at a 8500m² scale site within the Gwangyang Steel Plant, in participation of Chairman Kwon Oh-joon among others. It is beginning the operation of a plant that can produce 2,500 tons of carbon lithium after seven years of developing its own technology. 2,500 tons are equivalent to making 70 million units of batteries for laptop computers.

According to POSCO, the company has secured a technology to extract high purity lithium in a time length of between eight hours and one month, compared to the existing natural evaporation extract method. Lithium recovery rate also increased to over 80 percent from 30-40 percent. The carbon lithium produced in the plant will be supplied to LG Chemicals, Samsung SDI, which make secondary batteries, as well as POSCO EMS that makes secondary battery polar materials.

Despite being the global producer of secondary batteries, Korea has been dependent on importing carbon lithium, a major substance for secondary batteries. However, with POSCO embarking on carbon lithium production, Korean companies are now less worried about procuring materials. This is why LG Chemical President Lee Woong-bum and Samsung SDI President Cho Nam-sung joined the ground-breaking ceremony.

SNE Research, a research firm specializing in secondary batteries and electric vehicles, recently forecast that the world lithium ion secondary battery market would grow 5.5 times (in terms of volume) that of last year by 2020. POSCO plans to secure salt lakes to independently produce lithium phosphate, a substance for carbon lithium, and increase production of carbon lithium up to 40,000 tons. POSCO has already announced that it will focus on research and development of energy materials and lightweight materials including magnesium and titanium by investing 400 billion won (348 million dollars) additionally.

Related experts are saying that POSCO is broadening business to producing substances that are called the seeds of future industries from previously producing steel products, called the seeds of industries, tracing back to June 9, 1973 when it first extracted rusty waters at the Pohang Steel Plant. Analysts are praising POSCO's transformation in line with the potential rising demand for high performing batteries and light structure materials for future industries such as electric vehicles, robots and drones.



Do-Hyong Kim dodo@donga.com