This article was published on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site on Oct. 30, 2025, at 11:40 a.m.
POSCO is in talks to form a joint venture (JV) with BASF, the world's largest integrated chemical company. The move is intended to strengthen competitiveness against Chinese companies in the secondary battery materials sector. The two sides are currently negotiating specific terms.
On the 30th, investment banking (IB) industry sources said the POSCO Group has been negotiating with BASF since the first half of this year to establish a cathode material JV. The two companies are expected to each hold half the equity and operate a secondary battery materials business.
POSCO FUTURE M is expected to take the lead for the POSCO Group in operating the JV. POSCO FUTURE M is a subsidiary in which POSCO Holdings owns about 60% equity.
POSCO FUTURE M is the only domestic company that produces both cathode and anode materials used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems (ESS). In the cathode material sector, it is developing and mass-producing high-nickel cathode materials of the nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum (NCMA) family and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) family cathode materials. In the anode material sector, it produces lithium-ion storage electrode materials using graphite.
BASF, founded in 1865, is the world's largest integrated chemical company. Since 2006 it has held the No. 1 position in the chemical industry globally. It supplies high-performance cathode active material (CAM) for lithium-ion battery production to battery manufacturers and electric vehicle OEMs worldwide.
This is not BASF's first time creating a JV with another company for secondary battery materials. In 2021 it established a JV with China's Shanshan called BASF Shanshan Battery Materials to produce cathode materials and precursors. That JV signed a cathode material supply agreement with China's CATL in July.
Earlier, in 2015, it established BASF TODA Battery Materials with Japan's Toda Kogyo. The company specializes in cathode active materials for lithium-ion batteries.
If POSCO completes the JV with BASF, the two companies are expected to generate synergies by combining POSCO FUTURE M's raw material and precursor capabilities with BASF's global cathode active material technology and production network.
A POSCO official said, "We are reviewing various measures to strengthen competitiveness in the secondary battery materials business, but nothing has been decided yet."