Korean chemical giant bet on battery materials

Recently, the global electric vehicle market has grown rapidly. Korean chemical giants such as LG Chemical, POSCO Chemical and Lotte Chemical are adjusting their business strategies and increasing their investment in battery materials. These Korean chemical enterprises hope to ensure their competitiveness through investment in raw materials, become world leading enterprises in the field of battery materials, and develop their own product portfolio into high profit businesses with rapid growth.

LG Chemical: Become a leading battery material enterprise

A spokesman for LG Chem said that the company's goal is to become a world leading battery material company. To this end, the company promised to invest 6 trillion won in its battery material business by 2025. The spokesman said: "The investment commitment includes expanding our business in Europe and the United States, demonstrating the competitiveness of the company in cutting-edge products such as cathode materials through new facilities, and our experience in mass production technology to obtain more global customers."

The battery materials business developed by LG Chemical includes anode materials, separation membranes, cathode adhesives, radiation adhesives and carbon nanotubes. Last year, the company began to build a factory to produce anode materials in Guiwei, South Korea, with an annual capacity of 60000 tons. The company said that by 2026, its total capacity of anode materials will increase by about six times, from 40000 tons/year in 2020 to 260000 tons/year. In terms of separation membrane business, LG Chemical is studying mergers and acquisitions or joint ventures with enterprises with technology and customers, and plans to establish a global production base.

LG Chem said that it hopes to cooperate with enterprises with mining, smelting and refining technologies in various forms to improve the competitiveness of its metal resources. In May this year, LG Chemical and Tianjin B&M Technology Company, a subsidiary of Huayou Cobalt, signed an agreement to establish a joint venture. The two companies have agreed to invest 500 billion won by 2025. The company will focus on the production of cathode materials containing nickel, cobalt, manganese, aluminum and other compounds, and start mass production in Guiwei from the second half of 2024. In addition, people familiar with the matter said that LG Chem was studying overseas acquisition plans.

POSCO Chemical: realize self-sufficiency of battery materials

In May this year, POSCO introduced a plan to achieve self-sufficiency in battery materials. Min Qingjun, CEO of POSCO, said: "The winner of raw material business will be the winner of battery material business."

POSCO is committed to ensuring its competitiveness through investment in battery raw materials. In terms of lithium, POSCO said that by 2024, the company will ensure the production capacity of 93000 tons/year lithium hydroxide, which can be used for 2.2 million electric vehicles. In addition, in March this year, POSCO decided to build a 100000 t/a cathode material precursor factory in Shifeng Industrial Park, Guangyang, South Korea, with an estimated investment of 600 billion won. POSCO added that the plant was sufficient to produce the cathode materials needed for 1.2 million electric vehicle batteries.

In addition, according to the finalized cooperation plan, POSCO's high nickel cathode materials will be supplied to the Ultium Cells factory in the United States. In December 2021, POSCO and General Motors decided to establish a joint venture to produce cathode active materials in the United States. The joint venture plans to start production in 2024. Posco and General Motors will also jointly build a cathode material factory in Bechenko, Quebec, Canada. Through the joint venture, the two companies plan to invest about US $400 million in the first phase of the project from 2023 to establish a large factory to produce high nickel cathode materials used in batteries of General Motors electric vehicles. In the field of lithium and nickel business, POSCO Chemical aims to become the world's top manufacturing enterprise with an annual output of 220000 tons of lithium and 140000 tons of nickel by 2030 by using the existing environmental protection production technology and investment in mines and salt lakes.

In the field of anode materials, POSCO plans to set foot in the silica gel business and achieve the goal of annual output of 260000 tons by 2030. Posco Chemical said: "In terms of graphite, South Korea currently relies heavily on imported graphite from China, so it plans to develop diversified import channels of natural graphite and import natural graphite from Tanzania, Australia and other countries." In addition, POSCO also plans to build its own supply capacity in the only man-made graphite factory under construction in South Korea to improve the competitiveness of man-made graphite.

Lotte Chemical: focus on the four main components of battery

According to the company's "2030 growth strategy", Lotte Chemical has announced that it plans to develop its battery material business into a core business connecting the supply chain of electric vehicles, batteries and materials to meet the needs of the expansion of environment-friendly vehicles, new energy and renewable energy. Lotte Chemical aims to create 5 trillion won of sales in its battery material business by 2030.

Lotte Chemical said that the company will focus on four major components in the battery materials business: cathode materials, anode materials, separation membranes and electrolytes. Lotte Chemical, Lotte Fine Chemical, Lotte Aluminum and other companies under Lotte Group have started to invest in major battery materials and establish cooperative relationships.

In February this year, Lotte Chemical announced plans to build a new battery electrolyte organic solvent plant and carbon dioxide collection and liquefaction facility in Dashan, South Korea, and expand ethylene oxide adduct and high-purity ethylene oxide plants. The total cost of the project is about 502 million US dollars. In May this year, Lotte Chemical decided to produce electrolyte organic solvent based on high-purity ethylene oxide. The company plans to invest 210 billion won to build a factory to produce vinyl carbonate, dimethyl carbonate and other solvents, which will be completed by the end of 2023. Subsequently, Lotte Chemical announced an additional investment of 108 million dollars to increase the output of Dashan electrolyte solvent, aiming to increase the output of methyl ethyl carbonate and diethyl carbonate, two solvents used in the electrolyte.

For the American battery market that relies on imports, Lotte Chemical has established a subsidiary called Lotte Battery Materials America to promote the development of the company's battery materials business in the United States.