LG Chem Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea) has announced plans to construct the world’s largest plant exclusively for battery cathode materials by teaming up with Gumi City as it targets the rapidly growing battery market.
The company announced on Jan. 11th at the Gumi Convention Center located in Gumi, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea, that it had held the groundbreaking ceremony for the Gumi cathode plant.
Cathode materials, which account for about 40% of battery production costs, are core materials that determine the key performance of batteries such as capacity and life as one of the four major battery materials together with anodes, separators, and electrolytes.
LG Chem plans to invest approximately 500 billion KRW on a site spanning across over 60,000 m2 at the Gumi National Industrial Complex 5 in Gumi by 2025, thus procuring cathode material production capacity of 60,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr). This is the world’s largest-scale for a single plant and is enough to produce batteries for about 500,000 high-performance fully electric vehicles (EV, 500km range) every year.
The Gumi Plant that just began construction will build an exclusive line for NCMA (Nickel, Cobalt, Manganese, Aluminum) cathode materials that will be used for next-generation EV batteries, which LG Chemical is focusing on.
NCMA cathode materials are products that integrate LG Chem’s best material technologies and it is characterized by outstanding stability and output by applying aluminum that reinforced stability by expanding nickel content, which determines energy density, to around 90%.
In order to lead the global market in cathode materials, LG Chem will expand its production capacity from the current 80,000 tons to 260,000 tons by 2026, and is current developing cobalt-free technologies, which does not use cobalt that has high price volatility, as well as single crystal cathodes for next-generation solid-state batteries.
In addition to this, LG Chem plans to team up with Gumi City and assertively pursue local activities such as strengthening cooperation with local businesses for mutual growth, creating jobs and fostering experts, as well as nurturing teenagers and college students.