South Korean battery material maker Posco Future M has started constructing a domestic nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) cathode facility with a 30,000 tonnes per year production capacity in Yeongil Bay. In the past, the company known as Posco Chemicals has plotted to invest 392 billion or US$299 million for this project.

The new facility in the Yeongil Bay 4th general industrial complex in North Gyeongsang province's Pohang city will begin getting its shape in the first half of 2023, with productions to take off by 2025. The new nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) cathode facility will promptly hold a running capacity of 30,000 tonnes annually that can smoothly optimise almost 300,000 60kWh electric vehicles (EVs).

In April 2022, Posco Future began materialising a separate 30,000 tonnes per year NCMA cathode material plant, which will be activated by 2024. The above investment was pre-discussed and can be attributed to the 10-year domestic battery supply deal the brand signed with Samsung SDI.

This agreement was aimed at enhancing Samsung's EV Battery production. Posco Future M has concrete plans to expand its customer base once the NCA plant is complete and running.

Posco also confirmed that NCA produced at its Gwangyang battery cathode plant in South Korea's South Jeolla province would be circulated in 2023-24. The plant has a designated capacity of 90,000 tonnes per year for high-nickel cathodes, including nickel-cathode-manganese-aluminium (NCMA) and nickel-cobalt-manganese cathodes. The construction of this Gwangyang battery cathode plant was over by November 2022.

On 24 February, the name change of Posco Chemical was declared, and the company assumed the title of Posco Future M under the conglomerate Posco Group. The organisation plans to become a producer of eco-friendly raw materials for the ever-evolving EV industry.