EcoPro-battery materials complex

▲ This file photo shows the Pohang office of EcoPro BM Co., a unit of EcoPro Co., on Jan. 3, 2022, as provided by the company. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

EcoPro-battery materials complex

EcoPro pushing for 2 tln-won battery components complex expansion in S. Korea

POHANG/SEOUL, April 6 (Yonhap) -- EcoPro Co., a leading South Korean producer of secondary battery materials, plans to invest 2 trillion won (US$1.52 billion) to expand its battery components complex in the country's southeastern industrial city, according to the municipal governments on Thursday.

EcoPro is in talks with the municipal governments of North Gyeongsang Province and Pohang, about 270 kilometers southeast of Seoul, to build a manufacturing complex for battery materials, including cathodes and precursors -- key components used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EV) -- according to officials familiar with the matter.

It aims to start construction in the second half of this year and go into commercial operation in the second half of 2025.

The project is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.

An official from Eco Pro confirmed the talks have been under way, but nothing has been decided.

EcoPro has invested more than 1.7 trillion won and currently runs a large battery components complex in northern Pohang. If realized, the new complex will be located in southern Pohang.

The proposed facility expansion comes as South Korean battery and battery components makers are ramping up investment to qualify for U.S. government incentives under the newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The IRA gives up to US$7,500 tax credits to EV buyers whose vehicles were assembled in North America and made with minerals mined and processed in the U.S. or countries or regions that have free trade agreements with Washington.

South Korea's battery sector is cited among those expected to benefit from the IRA.

The Pohang city is emerging as a major industrial site for secondary battery materials, with companies like EcoPro and POSCO Future M on track to produce some 1 million tons of cathodes by 2030. That accounts for 16.5 percent of the global demand for cathodes supplies.

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