 |
| A battery pack for General Motors' electric vehicle / Courtesy of POSCO Chemical Co. |
POSCO Chemical said Friday it is building a $327 million cathode plant with General Motors in the Canadian city of Quebec to supply the key electric vehicle battery component to the U.S. automaker.
The two have signed a final agreement on setting up their joint venture, Ultium CAM, and building the cathode production facility in Becancour in southern Quebec by 2024, the company said in a release.
The Quebec plant will produce about 30,000 tons of high-nickel cathodes annually, enough to supply 220,000 EVs, and the companies aim to gradually expand its production. Construction will start in August.
A cathode is a key component of EV batteries and accounts for about 40 percent of production costs.
The joint venture also comes with a cathode supply contract for POSCO Chemical over eight years starting 2025, valued at least 8 trillion won ($6.73 billion), it said.
POSCO Chemical, a unit of POSCO Group whose flagship is steel titan POSCO, and GM announced in December a plan to set up a joint venture in North America.
The plan is part of POSCO Group's push to boost its EV business in recent years as part of a diversification strategy.
POSCO Chemical has already been supplying cathode materials to Ultium Cells, GM's joint venture with Korea's top battery producer LG Energy Solution.
POSCO Chemical said it plans to further expand overseas into other markets, such as Europe and Indonesia.
It also aims to increase its cathode production capacity to 610,000 tons a year by 2030, up from the current 105,000 tons. (Yonhap)
