POSCO Group is stepping up its push into the Chinese market by deepening cooperation with China's Ronbay Group, a leading global cathode maker, across the full range of secondary battery materials, including battery-grade lithium.
POSCO Holdings (005490.KS) said it signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with Ronbay Group at the POSCO Center on the 19th to cooperate across the entire secondary battery materials value chain. Under the agreement, the two companies will work together at every stage of the battery materials supply chain, from the supply of ore and brine lithium to spent-battery recycling.
Ronbay Group leads the high-nickel cathode field on the strength of its technology and production capacity. It has recently been pursuing a platform strategy for its business, expanding its product portfolio to include ternary, lithium iron phosphate, lithium manganese iron phosphate and sodium-ion batteries.
Under the agreement, POSCO Group will supply Ronbay Group with ore lithium from POSCO Pilbara Lithium Solution, brine lithium from POSCO Argentina and recycled lithium extracted from spent batteries by POSCO HY Clean Metal. In particular, for battery-grade lithium hydroxide based on the ore lithium produced by POSCO Pilbara Lithium Solution, the company plans to complete quality certification by the fourth quarter of this year and lay the groundwork for future mass supply.
The two companies will also work together to build a resource-recycling system centered on spent-battery recycling. POSCO HY Clean Metal already supplies nickel, cobalt and manganese to Ronbay Group's plant in China and to EMT, Ronbay Group's domestic precursor subsidiary. The two companies plan to strengthen resource-circulation cooperation going forward, including building a closed-loop system through the recovery and recycling of spent batteries globally.
POSCO Group expects the cooperation with Ronbay Group to further strengthen the competitiveness of its secondary battery materials supply chain, which runs from raw materials to finished products within the group, including ore lithium from Australia, brine lithium from Argentina and lithium recycled from spent batteries. It also plans to accelerate its push into the local market by supplying battery-grade lithium to China, the world's largest producer of secondary battery materials.
Since Chang In-hwa took the helm as chairman, POSCO Group has been strengthening its order base in the secondary battery materials business by combining preemptive, resource-focused investment with efforts to identify new demand in promising markets. POSCO Group plans to continue working with Ronbay Group and to expand its cooperation into battery material product lines such as energy storage systems (ESS), in line with efforts to diversify its lithium iron phosphate (LFP) product portfolio.
