Producing Lithium

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The use of electric batteries is growing ever more extensive but Korea has long fully relied on imports for the raw material to make batteries, lithium carbonate. Korean steelmaker POSCO has begun producing lithium for the first time in Korea following 7 years of research.

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This is an electric car battery manufactured by a Korean firm. The fields of application for electric batteries is becoming more diverse, ranging from cars to portable devices, but Korea has been entirely dependent on imports for their main raw material, lithium carbonate. However, lithium, the key material for secondary batteries, will now be produced domestically. Steelmaker POSCO has completed construction on a lithium plant at its Gwangyang Steelworks at a cost of some 22.7 million dollars, and is now equipped to begin mass production.

[Soundbite] Oh Jae-hun(Technical Steering Chief, POSCO Lithium Plant) : "LG Chem and Samsung SDI, the top two world leaders, have been relying mostly on imports. Our production is expected to generate import substitution effects."

The company has also developed new production technology after 7 years of research. The new technology enables stable production of high-purity products in a shorter time compared to existing extraction methods.

[Soundbite] Kwon Oh-joon(Chairman, POSCO) : "We will foster energy materials as a future growth sector through differentiated technological competitiveness."

Global demand for lithium carbonate used in batteries jumped more than ten-fold from 6,000 tons in 2002 to 66-thousand tons in 2015. POSCO plans to increase its annual lithium output from the current 2,500 tons to 40,000, raising anticipation for a more competitive domestic battery industry.