President Yoon Suk Yeol (R) looks at a battery precursor while listening to LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-eun’s (C) explanation ahead of a signing ceremony for LS Group’s project to build a plant for precursors, held at the Gunsan Saemangeum Convention Center in Gunsan, 178 kilometers southwest of Seoul, in this photo provided by the presidential office.
SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — LS Group signed an agreement with government entities Wednesday on its joint-venture project to build a 1.84 trillion-won (US$1.4 billion) battery precursor plant in a southwestern industrial park.
LS signed the investment agreement with Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency, the North Jeolla Province government, the Gunsan City government and the Korea Rural Community Corp. to build a 120,000-ton-a-year plant in the Saemangeum industrial complex in Gunsan, 178 kilometers southwest of Seoul, with an aim to start production as early as in 2025, the company said.
For the project, LS and L&F, a Daegu-based producer of cathodes for lithium-ion batteries, will initially form a 55:45 joint venture to invest 1 trillion won in the plant. LS will inject 840 billion won later in the project, a company spokesperson said over the phone.
The two companies plan to break ground on the plant this year.
President Yoon Suk Yeol attended the signing ceremony. He said secondary battery is one of the country’s core strategic assets along with semiconductors, and the planned joint investment will allow the domestic production of precursors and a stable supply of the key battery material.
The Saemangeum area is the “most optimal platform” for the production of the battery materials and completed battery products, Yoon said.
A precursor is a specific chemical form containing nickel, cobalt, manganese and aluminum before it is turned into cathodes, a key secondary battery material that determines the power and range of electric vehicle batteries. Precursors account for 65-70 percent of the cost of cathodes.
Some 30 companies have announced they will make investments worth 6.6 trillion won in the Saemangeum area since the incumbent government took office in May last year, which is six times higher than the 1 trillion-won investment plans released during the previous Moon Jae-in government, the president said.
LS and L&F are the latest in the battery components industry to join the Saemangeum complex, a reclaimed area in Gunsan, following similar projects under way by LG Chem Ltd. and SK On Co.
(Yonhap)
