Ecopro announced plans to invest approximately 1.2 trillion won in domestic ventures this year, focusing on its Pohang Campus. The company is allocating 690 billion won for the expansion of its precursor factory, 320 billion won each for the expansion of cathode material and lithium hydroxide factories, and 10 billion won for the production of industrial gases, as disclosed on March 10.
This investment aims to refine the secondary battery ecosystem, from recycling spent batteries to manufacturing precursors and lithium hydroxide, and producing cathode materials, to preemptively capture the future market.
Through this investment, Ecopro plans to complete the construction of Ecopro EM’s high-nickel cathode material (NCA) production plant CAM8 and Ecopro Innovation’s lithium hydroxide production plant LHM2 in the first half of this year.
Additionally, Ecopro Materials will construct the precursor factory CPM and the RMP 3 and 4 factories responsible for the sulfation process, which is a preliminary stage in the precursor production process.
Upon the completion of these projects, the Pohang 4 Campus will emerge as a large-scale secondary battery industrial complex, capable of producing 270,000 tons of cathode materials, 110,000 tons of precursors, and 26,000 tons of lithium hydroxide.
The total investment in the Pohang Campus, initiated by Ecopro in 2020, will reach 5.5 trillion won, including this year’s investment. Despite the challenges facing the upstream industries, Ecopro is committed to executing the planned investments without delay, confident in the market’s growth potential.