EcoPro BM secures $34 billion deal as Samsung SDI's cathode supplier

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EcoPro BM secures $34 billion deal as Samsung SDI's cathode supplier

Published: 03 Dec. 2023, 16:15

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

Samsung SDI's Vice President Kim Ik-hyeon, left, and EcoPro BM CEO Joo Jae-hwan signed a five-year supply deal for cathode materials worth 44 trillion won ($34 million) at EcoPro BM's headquarters in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, on Friday. [ECOPRO BM]

EcoPro BM, a battery material subsidiary of EcoPro, closed a 44 trillion won ($34 billion) deal to supply cathode materials to Samsung SDI for five years from 2024, the company said on Sunday.

The battery materials for 2024 will be supplied from EcoPro’s Pohang cathode battery complex and then will be supplied from its Hungary complex upon its completion from the following year to Samsung SDI’s Hungary plant.

EcoPro is constructing a 429,752 square-meter (4,625,812 square-foot) factory unit in Debrecen, Hungary, that broke ground in April and is scheduled to go into production in 2025. The volume of the project is worth 1.3 trillion won and the plant’s annual production capacity will be 108,000 tons of cathodes.

The battery materials maker started to supply high-nickel cathodes to Samsung SDI in 2011. EcoPro BM and Samsung SDI established a joint venture EcoPro EM in 2021, which supplies nickel cobalt aluminum (NCA) cathode materials to the battery maker’s offshore battery plants.

An accumulated 200,000 tons of cathodes were supplied to Samsung SDI until 2023, EcoPro BM said.

“EcoPro and Samsung SDI’s trust-based partnership is playing a crucial role in strengthening Korea’s battery industry,” said EcoPro BM CEO Joo Jae-hwan in a statement. “This long-term supply deal provides another opportunity to consolidate our relations.”

Samsung SDI’s Vice President Kim Ik-hyeon said the deal will “be a huge help to boost Samsung SDI’s global competitiveness” as a battery maker.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]