Shaking off Doubts
The day of July 30 was POSCO chairman Choi Jung-woo’s first day of work at the POSCO Center in Gangnam-gu after his inauguration on July 27. Choi said, “We will raise our share of the global material market, including lithium, to 20 percent by 2030 and earn more than 15 trillion won (US$13.41 billion) a year in sales.”
The chairman added, “I still don't have a clear picture of the state of POSCO businesses, but I can tell now that the lithium business is cruising along without a hitch up to now. Since we have secured the necessary technology, we will be able to mass produce lithium in the near future, beyond the level of test production.”
Choi seemed to make such remarks to remove doubts about the lithium business that have been raised since former chairman Kwon Oh-joon. POSCO has been promoting the secondary battery material business as its new growth engine and focusing on securing the key material, lithium. However, some have expressed doubts about whether POSCO will be able to mass produce hundreds of thousands of tons of lithium at the plants even after the company produced a small amount of lithium in the process of test production.
Choi said, “POSCO Lithium Extraction (PosLX) plant in Gwangyang is running successfully,” hinting a rosy prospect on the business. In other words, POSCO will be able to mass produce lithium as the PosLX is in the stage of demo plant, a step right before the commercial plant. POSCO expects to produce 1,000 tons of lithium from last year to this year and 30,000 tons by 2020.