▲Hong Jeong-jin, Executive Director of POSCO Future M, is giving a presentation.


POSCO FutureM and EcoproBM Expand Development of LFP Battery Cathode Materials
Technological advancement and recycling economics are bad… dominating the battery market is impossible.

[Editor's Note] Battery capacity, performance, and type are crucial to an electric vehicle's driving range. Depending on performance and battery raw materials, they can account for up to 40% of the electric vehicle's price. Companies have focused on improving battery performance, making significant technological advancements and earning premium labels. However, these high prices have left electric vehicles vulnerable to price competition from internal combustion engine vehicles. To address this, lower-priced batteries, led by LFP batteries, are being pursued as a solution. In this feature article, we will examine the trends in domestic LFP batteries and the opinions of experts.

As the cost of electric vehicles is being pushed to lower prices as an alternative to overcome the significant weakness of electric vehicles in terms of price competitiveness compared to internal combustion engine vehicles, the direction of battery cathode material companies is also drawing attention.

Hong Jeong-jin, Managing Director of POSCO Future M, presented “POSCO Future M’s Future Strategy for Secondary Battery Materials Business” at the “Pohang Battery Conference 2023” on the 14th, saying, “There is a trend of electric vehicle sales slowing down, but there are no major doubts in the mid- to long-term.” He added, “However, there is a growing trend of automakers requesting inexpensive batteries to solve the problem of electric vehicles falling behind in price competitiveness.”

In line with the outlook that the electric vehicle market will be divided into premium and mass-market vehicles, materials company POSCO Future M is also diversifying its portfolio.

Starting in 2025, the company plans to begin development of N9x with a nickel content of over 90%, with mass production starting in 2026. It also plans to actively pursue the development of cathode materials for all-solid-state batteries and continue to target high value-added markets.

In addition, POSCO Future M plans to develop and commercialize a non-NCM manganese-rich product for batteries for standard and entry-level electric vehicles by 2024, becoming the first in the industry to do so, and to produce 150,000 tons of cathode materials for LFP by 2030.

Manganese enrichment is considered a way to secure price competitiveness by lowering the relatively expensive cobalt and nickel content and maximizing the manganese content.

Executive Director Hong Jeong-jin expressed his expectations, saying, “If we succeed in developing and commercializing manganese-rich cathode materials, the energy density will be 10% higher than LFP products, and the price will be similar, so the impact on the market will be huge.”“There are still many areas that need to be developed technically, such as the generation of a lot of gas during the cycle,” he said.

EcoPro BM was selected for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's 'LFP Battery Development Project' and is currently carrying out a project worth a total of 23 billion won together with Samsung SDI and others.

In addition, EcoPro Group announced that it will build a pilot line for LFP cathode materials at its Ochang plant by June of next year to meet the growing demand for LFP batteries.

L&F, which had focused on high-nickel cathode materials, also began developing LFP cathode materials.

L&F is also preparing LMFP cathode materials by adding manganese, similar to POSCO Future M, and announced plans to mass-produce LFP in 2025 and LMFP in 2026.

LG Chem signed an MOU with China's Huayou Group regarding the cathode material supply chain last September.

The two companies plan to build a joint LFP cathode material plant in Morocco with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons, with the goal of mass production starting in 2026.

Although the development of LFP batteries is being rushed, experts predict that it will be difficult for LFP to become the absolute leader in the market.

This is because LFP batteries have relatively limited further technological advancements, are not economically viable for recycling, and have limited space utilization due to their low energy density.

Other experts say that if high nickel takes hold, LFP may lose its absolute price advantage and lose its biggest advantage.

For the various reasons mentioned above, many experts, including Research Fellow Jeong Ho-il, have evaluated that Korea's strategy of advancing into premium batteries based on NCM batteries was the right one.

Jeong Ho-il, a research fellow at POSCO Management Institute, said, “LFP is currently “90% of sales are in China,” he said, adding, “We will have to watch closely to see how it expands to other regions in the future.”

He continued, “Various options for ternary batteries, such as nickel-free and cobalt-free, are being developed,” adding, “In order to not fall behind China, it is important to accelerate the time to success and establish a recycling ecosystem for key metal materials.”