Posco Chemical to work with British start-up on EV batteries

Posco Chemical, a major Korean chemical company, said Thursday it has agreed to cooperate with a British battery start-up on the development and supply of electric vehicle battery components in a bid to tap deeper into the European electric vehicle market.

Posco Chemical and Britishvolt, a West Midlands-headquartered battery company, will also work to establish a stable supply chain, including securing the raw materials for battery components and ensuring local production in Europe.

Britishvolt aims to have an annual production capacity of 100 gigawatt hours from its facilities under construction in Northumberland in England and the Canadian city of Quebec. It counts British carmakers, like Aston Martin and Lotus, as its clients.

Posco Chemical, a unit under Korean steel giant Posco Holdings, has been pivoting to rechargeable battery materials business as a new growth driver, primarily cathodes, a key component used in lithium-ion batteries.

Posco Chemical is building a cathode production facility in southern Quebec in the joint venture with U.S. General Motors, with the operation to start in 2024 to produce about 30,000 tons of high-nickel cathodes a year, enough to produce 220,000 electric vehicles.

Posco Chemical has also set up a joint venture with Huayou Cobalt, China's largest cobalt producer, to produce an annual 35,000 tons of high-nickel cathodes starting 2023.

Yonhap