New Growth Engine for POSCO

Officials from POSCO and the government launch POSCO Chemtech's first anode materials production plant in a ceremony held in Sejong City on Nov. 8.

POSCO Group has started boosting production of secondary battery anode materials to expand its share of the global market.


POSCO chairman Choi Jeong-woo pledged to nurture anode materials as its new core business right after taking office. The group aims to increase anode materials production from the current 24,000 tons to 70,000 tons to emerge as a major player in the global battery market.

POSCO announced on Nov. 8 that POSCO Chemtech Co., a coal chemistry and carbon material subsidiary of POSCO, held a ceremony to mark both the completion of its first anode materials plant and the start of construction for its second plant in Sejong City. POSCO Chemtech was led by Choi before he took office as group chairman.


Anode materials are one of the four key components of secondary batteries. They help the cathode receive lithium ions emitted from the anode when charging secondary batteries and they use carbon materials like graphite.

POSCO Chemtech’s first plant, which was completed on Nov. 8, has undergone six phases of facility expansion since the completion of Unit 1 in 2011 to meet increasing demand from customers at home and abroad. Currently, it produces 24,000 tons of anode materials a year.

Posco Chemtech will build its second anode plant in the High-tech Industrial Complex in Sejong City, nearby the first one, on a site of about 66,087 square meters, equivalent to nine soccer fields. The company is planning to complete four production lines in the first phase of construction and secure 20,000 tons of annual production capacity by the second half of next year. It will build a total of 10 production lines in phases to expand the plant’s capacity to 50,000 tons by 2021. POSCO said that the second plant will become a smart factory that integrates the group’s competence in manufacturing, construction and ICT.

When the second plant is completed, POSCO Chemtech’s total annual anode materials production capacity would increase to 74,000 tons, including the 24,000 tons from the nine lines at the first plant. This is enough to produce about 2.7 million 30-kilowatt electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

With growth of the EV industry, the global battery market is expected to grow from 114 GWh in 2018 to 480 GWh in 2025 with an average annual growth rate of 22 percent. The natural graphite anode material market is also forecast to more than quadruple from 70,000 tons in 2018 to 300,000 tons in 2025. The global market is currently led by China’s BTR and Japan’s Hitachi. The two companies account for 70 percent and 20 percent of the total global output, respectively.

Marking Choi’s 100th day in office, POSCO Group presented its “100 reform projects” on Nov. 5 and announced plans to integrate the group’s anode and cathode materials divisions and establish a general secondary battery material research center. According to the plans, the group aims to secure a 20 percent share in the global market and achieve 17 trillion won (US$15.22 billion) of sales by 2030.

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