POSCO Future M Co. said Wednesday it has started mass production of single-crystal cathodes at its Pohang plant for supply to Ultium Cells LLC, a South Korea-U.S. battery joint venture. (Image courtesy of POSCO Future M)
SEOUL, Dec. 6 (Korea Bizwire) — POSCO Future M Co. said Wednesday it has started mass production of single-crystal cathodes at its Pohang plant for supply to Ultium Cells LLC, a South Korea-U.S. battery joint venture.
The battery materials unit of steel maker POSCO said it has started mass production of NCMA (nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum) single-crystal cathodes, used in high-performance electric vehicle batteries, at the plant located 262 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
Ultium Cells is a U.S. joint venture between General Motors Co. and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution Ltd. It operates battery cell plants in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan.
Batteries with single-crystal cathodes, created by combining various metals into a single particle shape, are known to have a longer lifespan and capacity compared with polycrystalline cathode counterparts.
POSCO Future M has started producing single-crystal cathodes at a separate plant in Gwangyang, some 290 kilometers south of Seoul, since March after becoming the first company in the world to succeed in mass production of the material.
The company said it anticipates the production capacity of the Pohang plant, currently standing at 30,000 tons per year, to increase to 106,000 tons by 2026.
(Yonhap)
