South Korea's POSCO Steel diversifies amid growing Popularity of Electric Vehicles

According to latest updates, South Korea's largest steelmaker, POSCO announced that it will build a lithium processing plant in the country's southwestern city to meet the growing demand of electric vehicle (EV) battery materials. Lithium is a key cathode metal used in EV batteries.

In a bid to have stable lithium supplies, the steelmaker is joining hands with Pilbara Minerals Ltd., a major lithium mining company in Australia. POSCO has signed a deal last February to acquire a 9.5% stake in Pilbara Minerals.

The joint venture will be set up in Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, that can produce 40,000 tons of high-quality lithium a year, which is enough for 400,000 EV batteries.
The consortium is expected to invest around 800 million (USD 661 million) to build the facility with POSCO's share of 79% in the joint venture. The plant is expected to be completed in 2020.

POSCO is also planning to build a lithium plant in Argentina with an annual capacity of 25,000 tons. Last August, it also inked a deal to buy lithium mining rights in Argentina from Galaxy Resources for USD 280 million.

The South Korean government is supporting the electric vehicles industry and have announced subsidies of around USD 900 million for e-mobility. This money will be used to subsidise the electric and fuel cars as well as for the associated infrastructure. The government's goal is to increase the number of battery electric vehicles on South Korean roads by 71,000 next year and fuel cell vehicles by 10,000. POSCO has predicted that the global lithium demand will rise to 820,000 tonnes in 2025 from the current 250,000 tonnes.