POSCO Chemical to Supply Anode Materials for Electric Vehicles to GM-LGES Joint Venture 'Ultium Cells'

Supplying Cathode and Anode Materials to Ultium Cells... Accelerating Global Market Expansion

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO Chemical has independently developed an anode material that extends the lifespan of electric vehicle batteries and supports fast charging, and will supply it to Ultium Cells in the United States.

POSCO Chemical has agreed to supply anode materials for electric vehicle batteries in line with the production timeline of Ultium Cells LLC, a battery company jointly established in the U.S. by GM and LG Energy Solution. This follows the selection as a cathode material supplier in December 2020, enabling POSCO Chemical to supply both cathode and anode materials, the two core components of batteries, to Ultium Cells.

Through this, POSCO Chemical will increase its global market share, currently ranked 4th worldwide at about 11%, by supplying anode materials to the U.S. and strengthening its market position. Ultium Cells will be able to secure high-quality battery core materials stably.

The product POSCO Chemical supplies to Ultium Cells is a proprietary low-expansion anode material, which significantly enhances the essential stability, lifespan, and charging speed performance of electric vehicle batteries while reducing costs. Currently, anode materials used by battery companies are classified into natural graphite-based and artificial graphite-based depending on the raw materials. POSCO Chemical has succeeded in developing a material that overcomes the technical limitations of both types and combines their advantages.

Generally, natural graphite anode materials have a plate-like structure with particles layered, offering strengths in energy storage capacity. However, a known drawback is structural changes caused by expansion during repeated charging, which shortens lifespan. On the other hand, artificial graphite anode materials are manufactured at high temperatures, providing high stability and an isotropic structure with uniformly arranged spherical particles that increase lithium-ion mobility, thus enhancing charging efficiency. However, due to raw material and process reasons, production costs tend to be higher.

In response, POSCO Chemical has utilized natural graphite as a raw material to lower costs, while applying a material structure improvement process to prevent expansion, thereby extending lifespan and increasing charging speed to levels comparable to artificial graphite. They have been promoting the development and mass production of this low-expansion anode material.

POSCO Chemical plans to accelerate its entry into the rapidly growing electric vehicle battery market by leveraging its independently developed low-expansion anode material. The product will be manufactured at the Sejong plant, which is currently undergoing phased expansion, and the company intends to expand supply to domestic and international battery companies, including Ultium Cells.

With this supply agreement, POSCO Chemical achieves the milestone of supplying high-nickel NCMA cathode materials and low-expansion anode materials to Ultium Cells, a major U.S. electric vehicle battery company. POSCO Chemical’s products will be installed as core materials in GM’s dedicated electric vehicle platform, 'Ultium.'

This can be seen as the fruition of the secondary battery materials business integration carried out by the POSCO Group in 2019. To maximize R&D, process technology, and marketing synergies in the cathode and anode material businesses serving the same customers, POSCO Group integrated the anode material business of POSCO Chemtech and the cathode material business of POSCO ESM into POSCO Chemical.

Additionally, POSCO Group established Korea’s first Secondary Battery Materials Research Center and is consolidating research personnel and infrastructure within the group, including RIST and POSCO Chemical, to develop next-generation materials and process technologies, striving to secure competitiveness.

POSCO Chemical plans to actively expand its production capacity for cathode and anode materials by completing a material value chain linked to securing raw materials such as lithium, nickel, and graphite, which POSCO Group is promoting. Through this, the company aims to establish a production system of 400,000 tons of cathode materials and 260,000 tons of anode materials by 2030, achieving a 20% global market share and annual sales of 23 trillion KRW in the battery materials sector.