A battery consortium led by LG Energy Solution plans to begin construction of a cathode material plant in Indonesia within this year.
On the morning of January 27, Kwon Young-soo, CEO of LG Energy Solution, is delivering a commemorative speech at the ceremony celebrating LG Energy Solution's new listing on the KOSPI, held at the Korea Exchange in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@
According to local news agency Antara and industry sources on the 4th, Kwon Young-soo, Vice Chairman and CEO of LG Energy Solution, met with Bahri Lahadalia, Minister of Investment of Indonesia, on the 3rd (local time) in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, to discuss the LG consortium project. Kwon also announced that the LG consortium will start construction of the cathode material plant within this year.
The LG consortium includes LG Chem, LG Energy Solution, POSCO Holdings, and LX International.
Minister Bahri stated that he is ready to support the realization of the LG consortium project. The meeting between Minister Bahri and Vice Chairman Kwon was also attended by Gandhi Sulistiyanto, Indonesian Ambassador to Korea, among others.
After the meeting, Minister Bahri said in a statement, "The (Indonesian) government appreciates the LG consortium's continued efforts to realize investment in Indonesia's electric vehicle battery ecosystem," and added, "The Ministry of Investment will continue to monitor whether the approval process related to LG's investment proceeds smoothly."
In response, Vice Chairman Kwon expressed gratitude for the cooperation of the Indonesian government and said that discussions are underway to establish a joint venture for project promotion, and that the joint venture is expected to receive approval from the boards of the consortium participating companies so that the project can start this year.
Kwon said, "Once the agreement on the future investment share structure is finalized, construction of the cathode material plant will begin within this year."
Last April, the LG consortium signed a non-binding investment agreement (Framework Agreement) with Indonesian state-owned nickel mining company Antam and Indonesian battery investment company IBC. The LG consortium is expected to build a complete value chain from securing large-scale minerals such as nickel together with Indonesian state-owned companies to battery cell production.
The project scale is reported to be about 9 billion dollars (approximately 11.0772 trillion KRW).
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
