Posco celebrates Groundbreaking for Lithium Hydroxide Plant in South Korea

21. September 2023

Posco Holdings, the parent company of the world’s sixth-largest steelmaker, celebrated a groundbreaking ceremony on 13 June 2023 to begin construction on a lithium hydroxide plant. Located in the Yulchon 1 Industrial Complex in South Jeolla Province, the plant is part of Posco Group’s strategic plan to further expand its battery value chain. The focus is on raw materials such as lithium and nickel, materials for battery production and the recycling of used batteries. As the business newspaper KED Global writes on its website, the new factory is expected to be able to produce around 25,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year. This amount is enough for about 600,000 EV batteries. The investment sum for the project is estimated at 450 million US dollars, and the plant is scheduled to start operations in 2025. Posco Lithium Solution, a subsidiary of Posco Holdings, will finance, build and operate the plant. Machinery equipment and other products involved in production often require KC Certification to be approved for import and operation in Korea.

In a pioneering move by purchasing a salt lake in Salta, Argentina, in 2018, Posco Holdings became the first South Korean company in Argentina’s lithium business. The company confirmed that the new factory was part of an investment in Argentina announced in October last year. While lithium hydroxide will be produced domestically, the feedstock lithium carbonate will be extracted from the Argentinian salt lake. By 2028, Posco Holdings plans to increase lithium production to 100,000 tonnes by using this salt lake. In other business activities, Posco Group is building a spodumene lithium ore plant for Posco-Pilbara Lithium Solution and operating an electrode material factory for Posco Future M. In addition, a battery recycling plant is to be built by Posco HY Clean Metal. All of the aforementioned projects are being built in the Yulchon Industrial Complex and are intended to make this location a hub for battery production.

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