Completion of World-Class Quality Control Smart Factory Model, to be Used as a New Expansion Model
Rapid Growth of Electric Vehicle Market and Battery Internalization Present Opportunities for Competitive Material Companies
[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] POSCO Chemical has established a world-class competitive smart factory for secondary battery materials at its cathode material Gwangyang plant. Using this as a model, the company plans to rapidly expand its global mass production bases to achieve its vision of becoming a 'global top-tier' company ahead of schedule.
At the Gwangyang plant, being built as a production base for high-nickel cathode materials for electric vehicles, POSCO Chemical has combined POSCO Group's manufacturing, construction, and ICT capabilities to establish a smart factory that enables real-time quality control and maximizes production efficiency. The Gwangyang cathode material plant currently has a production capacity of 30,000 tons, and through expansion, it will operate an annual production system of 90,000 tons starting in 2023. The 90,000 tons of cathode material can be used for approximately 1 million 60kWh-class electric vehicle batteries.
The Gwangyang cathode material plant has optimized production processes and systems suited for the materials business by applying air transport devices to increase logistics transport speed, managing quality and product information in real time, and automating the entire process from raw material receipt, product manufacturing, to shipment management. In particular, the real-time quality monitoring system named 'Air Shooting' is a representative smart process of the Gwangyang cathode material plant. Air Shooting connects the production plant and the quality analysis room through a pipeline with strong air pressure, rapidly transporting product sample capsules collected from the manufacturing site at a speed of 5 meters per second. Products randomly sampled from a factory the size of 20 soccer fields arrive at the analysis room within 30 seconds. Researchers digitize the sample components in real time and use the data to improve processes and quality.
At the Gwangyang cathode material plant, process development optimization has been continuously carried out based on analysis data, such as improving the internal arrangement of the key equipment, the calciner, and increasing hourly processing volume. As a result, the production efficiency of the Gwangyang cathode material plant has increased by more than 91% compared to the early construction phase in 2018.
A plant official explained, "One of the things that customers visiting for product supply consultations are most interested in is the automated process and quality management system," adding, "POSCO Chemical is receiving favorable evaluations from many customers for thoroughly managing quality directly linked to battery stability and reducing production costs."
Achieving Global No.1 in Cathode Materials by 2025... Annual Production of 160,000 Tons by 2025
Going forward, POSCO Chemical plans to apply the competitive process model established at the Gwangyang plant to domestic and overseas expansion factories. To secure global No.1 level cathode material mass production capacity by 2025, POSCO Chemical plans to rapidly expand its annual capacity from 40,000 tons in 2021 to 270,000 tons in 2025 and 400,000 tons by 2030. In particular, it aims to complete an early 160,000-ton mass production system domestically by 2025 and swiftly invest to reach 110,000 tons overseas, including China and Europe, to establish a global production system with an annual capacity of 270,000 tons. This expansion significantly exceeds the previously planned 210,000 tons for 2025, and it is expected to accelerate the timing of POSCO Chemical’s achievement of the No.1 position in the secondary battery materials market.
The reason for accelerating investment is that the market environment is rapidly changing due to increasing global electric vehicle demand centered on the U.S. and Europe, major automakers’ push for battery internalization, and efforts to establish regional supply chains by production bases. It is analyzed that the next 2 to 3 years will be a golden time to secure leadership in the secondary battery materials business.
Jung Dae-heon, head of the Energy Materials Division, said, "We will turn market changes into opportunities to expand our customer base and rapidly increase production capacity. We plan to build close partnerships with domestic battery companies and global automakers and proactively participate in regional supply chain establishment by production bases," adding, "To meet increasing demand, we have advanced the planned investment schedule and will become a global top player in production capacity by 2025."
Acceleration of Secondary Battery Material Internalization... Securing Supply Systems for Lithium, Nickel, and Graphite
According to UBS’s announcement this year, the global electric vehicle market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 28%, from 3 million units in 2020 to 35.5 million units in 2030. This significantly exceeds the 26% average annual growth rate and the 25 million unit market size forecasted by major market research firms in 2020, indicating an accelerating transition to the electric vehicle market. Additionally, the competitive capacity expansions by major battery companies and battery internalization plans announced by major automakers such as Tesla and Volkswagen are seen as opportunities for competitive material suppliers to expand their customer base.
Along with expanding mass production capacity, POSCO Chemical is actively securing a competitive edge by independently supplying key raw materials in connection with POSCO Group. POSCO Group has secured supply systems for lithium, nickel, and graphite, which are raw materials for cathode materials, through resource development projects. It plans to produce 220,000 tons of lithium and 100,000 tons of nickel raw materials by 2030, and is also promoting supply of nickel and cobalt raw materials through recycling of spent batteries and expanding self-supply of precursors, an intermediate material for cathode materials. Furthermore, to secure anode material raw materials, it has diversified supply by acquiring shares in a graphite mine in Tanzania, Africa.
POSCO Chemical foresees that raw material procurement capabilities will determine business competitiveness in the secondary battery materials business and that supply chains and competitive structures will be reorganized around this. POSCO Chemical has established itself as the only material company in the world capable of producing both cathode and anode materials from raw materials, and this differentiated advantage in raw material procurement is the reason it is confident in leading the secondary battery materials market.
Looking ahead, POSCO Chemical plans to focus its capabilities to secure differentiated competitive advantages in the secondary battery materials business amid the acceleration of global mobility growth. It will further strengthen business capabilities such as smart process advancement, mass production capacity expansion, independent raw material supply, and R&D for next-generation materials to lead the global market and accelerate performance creation. Through this, POSCO Chemical aims to solidify its position as a global top-tier company in the secondary battery materials business by 2025 and achieve a 20% global market share and annual sales of 23 trillion KRW by 2030, driving POSCO Group’s future growth.
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