S. Korea's Posco inks investment deal with Chinese firm in secondary battery recycling

Posco inked a joint investment deal with Chinese cobalt supplier Huayou Cobalt and the government of South Jeolla Province in the secondary battery recycling business.

Huayou Cobalt is a Shanghai-listed company specializing in material refining and purification.

The secondary battery recycling process involves extracting core materials used in making secondary batteries, such as lithium and nickel from used batteries.

Posco Vice President Chung Chang-hwa said that together with Posco Lithium Solution, they are eyeing growth in the secondary battery industry as a core material supplier.

Posco’s board of directors decided to invest in the lithium-ion recycling business in a board meeting in December.

Earlier this month, Posco established a joint corporation with Huayou Cobalt, named Posco HY Clean Metal, taking 65 percent of the share.

Posco HY Clean Metal will process “black powder” from used battery scraps in battery factories in Europe and import them for recycling in South Korea.

Posco will invest 120 billion won for the construction of a production line to reprocess used battery scraps to about 10,000 metric tons of black powder annually in the South Jeolla Province.

Posco recently broke ground for a lithium hydroxide plant, with an annual production capacity of 43,000 tons in Gwangyang. The company said it plans to gradually increase the annual lithium production volume to 70,000 tons in 2023, then up to 130,000 tons in 2026, and 220,000 tons by 2030.