Posco breaks ground on lithium plant in Argentina

South Korean steel giant Posco said Thursday it has broken ground on a lithium hydroxide plant in Argentina.

The $830 million project calls for the establishment of the plant near the Salar del Hombre Muerto salt lake in northern Argentina, with an annual production capacity of 25,000 tons of lithium hydroxide.

The plant is expected to be completed in the first half of 2024, and the capacity is enough to meet demand from 600,000 electric vehicles, according to Posco.

The annual output will be expanded to produce up to 100,000 tons by 2028.

In May last year, Posco, the world's fifth-largest steelmaker by output, also broke ground on a plant in South Korea to extract lithium hydroxide, a key material for electric vehicle batteries.

The plant will have an annual production capacity of 43,000 tons of lithium hydroxide, which is enough to manufacture about 1 million electric vehicles, according to Posco.

Initially, Posco estimated that the site had 2.2 million tons of lithium reserves. But the site was later confirmed to contain 13.5 million tons of lithium reserves, which is enough to make batteries for about 370 million electric cars, according to Posco.

South Korea's steel giant Posco Group has been pushing to boost its EV business in recent years as part of a diversification strategy. (Yonhap)