[Concall] POSCO Holdings "Battery Recycling Revenue Recognition from Q3... Annual Forecast of 300 Billion KRW"

2022 Performance Announcement

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seoyoon] POSCO Holdings announced during the Q4 earnings conference call held on the 27th that they are advancing battery recycling projects including the Polish secondary battery recycling plant 'PLSC' and 'POSCO HY Clean Metal' in Gwangyang, Jeonnam. They stated, "PLSC in Poland was completed in August last year. We obtained the waste disposal business license at the end of last year and have now started production."

They added, "We can produce 8,000 tons of black mass annually. All of this black mass will be fed into the Gwangyang HY Clean Metal process," and said, "The first plant was completed with an investment of 512.2 billion KRW on a 65,000㎡ site and is currently undergoing trial operation."

Furthermore, they said, "We can extract a total of seven products including nickel, cobalt, and manganese," and "We expect to obtain the business license around February this year, and in that case, initial product production will begin in the second quarter of this year."

POSCO Holdings stated, "The produced products will be supplied to precursor cathode material companies like POSCO Chemical, and lithium requires additional certification from battery manufacturers. We aim to minimize the certification period and start producing certified products around the end of September, achieving normal production speed by the end of the year," adding, "From the third quarter of this year, sales will begin to be recognized, albeit very small, and annual sales are estimated to exceed 300 billion KRW."

Panoramic view of POSCO Center, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. [Photo by POSCO]