Posco Chemical was chosen as the “Rising Star Company” at the 2021 Global Metals Awards, hosted by S&P Global Platts, the company said Friday. It is Posco Chemical’s first overseas award.

“Posco Chemical has built a large, successful business in the lithium-ion battery market and forms a crucial part of Posco Group’s value chain integration for green mobility solutions. The company has a significant presence in the secondary battery materials business, which it has identified as a new area of growth,” S&P Global Platts said.

Posco Chemical, which jumped into the battery materials business in 2011, currently stands as the nation’s only company that manufactures both cathodes and anodes, two key components of electric vehicle batteries along with separators and electrolytes.

Last year, its secondary battery materials business accounted for 44 percent of total sales, amounting to $476 million. The firm estimates that its sales will reach $745 million this year.

To meet growing demand for EV batteries, Posco Chemical aims to increase its annual production capacity for cathodes to 400,000 tons by 2030 from last year’s 40,000 tons, and that of anodes to 260,000 tons from 44,000 tons in the same period.

S&P Global Platts is the world’s largest information provider for the steel, raw materials and energy markets. Platts is a division of S&P Global, the global financial services firm that owns S&P Global Ratings and S&P Dow Jones, which operates the S&P 500 index. The Global Metals Awards, launched by Platts in 2013, honor global metal and mining firms with trophies in 16 categories.