[Courtesy of POSCO]
SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Aju News) -- The board of Posco, South Korea's top steel company, approved two joint ventures with China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co. Wednesday to produce precursors and cathodes, which are used to make lithium-ion batteries.
Posco said the joint ventures established in China's eastern province of Zhejiang can produce 4,600 tons of precursors and cathodes each in the second half of 2020. Zhejiang Huayou accounts for about 50 percent of global cobalt production. It also produces nickel and manganese.
Posco said the world's cathode market is expected to grow more than four times to 860,000 tons in 2020 from 210,000 tons in 2016. The development of lithium-ion batteries has increased global demand for lithium and related materials.
In February last year, Posco completed a plant called "PosLX" capable of extracting 2,500 tons of high-purity lithium every year that could be used to produce batteries for 70 million notebook computers. The plant in the southern city of Gwangyang will supply its product to South Korean battery makers.
Most of the world's lithium production is in South America where the standard extraction technique is to evaporate water from brine with each batch taking from 18 to 24 months. Posco has developed its own technology to extract lithium phosphate from brine and convert it to lithium carbonate.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
