POSCO sets up recycling plant in Poland

POSCO Holdings has built a battery plant in Poland in line with the stricter regulations set by Europe, requiring batteries to make use of more recycled materials. The new facility is expected to collect and recycle 10,000 tons of batteries from LG Energy Solution Ltd., annually.

As per The Korea Economic Daily, the construction of the plant was only completed last week, and it was about two years after POSCO Holdings signed a deal with LG Energy Solution. It was agreed that the Pohang-headquartered steelmaking company would be collecting tons of scrap batteries from the latter’s factory in Poland.

POSCO’s plant sits at a location in the town of Brzeg Dolny, and after gathering the used-up batteries, these will be taken apart and made into intermediate goods. The team will then ship them to the company’s battery recycling joint venture called POSCO HY Clean Metal where the minerals such as cobalt, manganese, and lithium are to be extracted.

The POSCO Group inked a deal with China’s Huayou Cobalt Co. to be its partner for the said recycling JV. On the other hand, the firm is operating its new factory in Poland in partnership with Sungeel HiTech Co. Ltd, a South Korean storage battery manufacturing company that holds proprietary technologies to reprocess secondary batteries.

It was noted that POSCO had been slowly expanding into other fields beyond its steelmaking business. In fact, it has now entered the rechargeable battery materials market and aims to build a stable battery value chain.

For this new line of business, the company has already invested in battery minerals mines in Argentina and Australia. It has also teamed up with mining companies in the said regions to broaden its business.

POSCO which is the fifth largest steelmaker in the world is planning to produce up to 300,000 tons of lithium, 610,000 tons of cathode minerals, 220,000 tons of nickel, and 320,000 tons of anode materials by the year 2030, and with these products, it expects to reach sales of KRW41 trillion or about $31 billion.

Finally, Yonhap News Agency reported that the company has been working on boosting its EV battery business as part of a diversification strategy.