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Posco Chemical’s cathodes are seen through a protective glass. (Posco Chemical) |
Posco chemical’s operating profit in the second quarter jumped a whopping 773.9 percent to 35.6 billion won ($30.9 million) on-year, the company announced Thursday.
The refractory and secondary battery materials making unit of South Korean steel giant Posco not only logged record quarterly results in operating profit, but also in revenue, enjoying 480 billion won, a 41.1 percent surge in the same period.
Posco Chemical is the country’s only firm that manufactures both cathodes and anodes, the two key components of lithium-ion batteries. The firm supplies cathodes and anodes to Ultium Cells, a US joint venture between LG Energy Solution and General Motors.
“The sales of cathodes and anodes logged 210.5 billion won in the second quarter, a 44 percent spike from a year prior, propelling the record quarterly growth,” a company official said.
This month, Posco Chemical announced that it would establish a new cathode plant in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, to increase the annual production capacity of cathodes to 160,000 metric tons by 2025. The firm plans to add plants in the US, Europe and China to secure extra production capacity of 110,000 tons and achieve 270,000 tons by 2027. As for anodes, the company plans to ramp up the capacity to 170,000 tons by 2025.
By Kim Byung-wook (
kbw@heraldcorp.com)
