On September 30, the construction of POSCO HY Clean Metal, a joint venture between Huayou Cobalt and POSCO, was officially started in Yulchon Industrial Park, Gwangyang, Jeollanam-do, South Korea.
Zheng Changhua, Director of New Growth Division of POSCO, warmly congratulated on the groundbreaking ceremony of the joint venture in the speech and put forward expectations and requirements for the completion and operation of the joint venture. The joint venture is committed to the creation of the ecological industry chain of lithium battery cycle and the construction of green energy system. It is firmly believed that under the sincere cooperation of the two companies, the joint venture project will become a new source of growth power for POSCO in the future and another milestone in win-win cooperation.
Due to the pandemic, Fang Qixue, Deputy Chairman and Senior Vice President of the Group, expressed congratulations on the groundbreaking ceremony of the joint venture and expressed high respect for the hard work of the employees of the joint venture through online video on behalf of the company. Mr. Fang said that the groundbreaking of POSCO HY Clean Metal marked a new chapter of production, operation, construction and development of the joint venture, which means that the joint venture has stood at a new starting point and embarked on a new journey. At the same time, it was hoped that the joint venture would demonstrate strong competitiveness in the fierce global market competition and make outstanding contributions to the development of new energy lithium battery industry.
As the Director General of the joint venture, Bao Wei, the Assistant President of the Group, congratulated the joint venture on the groundbreaking of the project, and hoped that the joint venture could inherit the excellent culture of Huayou Cobalt and POSCO, grow bigger and stronger, and become a new force in the industry of recycling obsolete battery.
As key market participants in the global power battery industry chain, POSCO and Huayou have established good cooperative relationship in the fields of power battery precursors, anode materials, nickel ore development, etc. Based on the previous cooperation between the two parties, this cooperation further gives play to POSCO's competitive advantage in the global power battery field and Huayou's technological advantage in the smelting and recycling of power battery, and expands the cooperation depth between the two sides in the power battery industry chain, which have far-reaching significance to consolidate the strategic cooperative relationship between the two sides and promote the development of the global power battery industry.
More than 50 people, including Song Xiangluo, Director of Gwangyang Economic and Trade Zone, Park Hyun-sik, Vice Mayor of Yeosu, Xu Longzhu, President of GS Energy, Zhang Chengshi, Specialist of LG Energy Solutions, Chi Yuhuang, Representative Director of POSCO HY Clean Metal, and Guo Siran, COO of Huayou overseas joint venture, attended the groundbreaking ceremony.
POSCO HY Clean Metal is a joint venture established by Huayou Cobalt and POSCO in South Korea to engage in the recycling of obsolete battery waste. The total investment of the joint venture project is KRW 120 billion and it occupies an area of 60,000 square meters, with an annual processing capacity of 12,000 tons of black powder of battery materials. The project is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2022.