South Korean steelmaker Posco will build a lithium-ion cathode plant in the nation’s southwestern region to meet the growing market demand on rechargeable battery, the company said Tuesday.



Posco has bought a 50,000-square-meter construction site from Gwangyang Bay Free Economic Zone Authority, to build the new plant capable of producing 6,000 metric tons of cathode material.

The land transaction contract was signed Tuesday after the board approved to increase the capital of its battery component making subsidy Posco ESM by 113 billion won ($105 million).

The company plans to complete the construction of the plant by 2019 and also plans to expand the production capacity by 50,000 tons a year by 2022.

When combining production capacity from another cathode plant in Gumi, South Gyeongsang Province, Posco ESM will produce 62,000 tons of cathode material a year, enough to make batteries for up to 1 million electric batteries.

The cathode plant in Gwangyang will be a part of battery component complex which would also include a 30,000-ton lithium-processing plant as well as a 20,000 ton nickel-processing plant, the company said.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)