POSCO Group said on the 19th it agreed to work with Chinese cathode corporations Ningbo Ronbay New Energy on battery-grade lithium supply and across the broader secondary battery materials business.
POSCO Holdings, the group's holding company, signed a strategic business agreement with Ronbay Group at the POSCO Center that day. The deal covers cooperation on supplying ore-based lithium and brine-based lithium and on recycling spent batteries.
POSCO Group will supply ore-based lithium from POSCO-Pilbara LITHIUM SOLUTION at the YulChon industrial complex in South Jeolla, brine-based lithium from POSCO Argentina, and recycled lithium extracted from spent batteries by POSCO HY Clean Metal (YulChon industrial complex) in South Jeolla. Among these, POSCO Group plans to complete within the year the quality certification process for battery-grade lithium hydroxide produced by POSCO-Pilbara LITHIUM SOLUTION using ore-based lithium.
POSCO Group and Ronbay Group also agreed to strengthen cooperation on resource circulation, including building a closed-loop system for recovering and recycling resources from spent batteries.
POSCO Group said, "Through cooperation with Ronbay Group, we have proven the quality and global competitiveness across the group's lithium production value chain, from raw materials to products, including Australian ore-based lithium, Argentine brine-based lithium, and lithium from spent-battery recycling," adding, "We have also gained important symbolism by supplying battery-grade lithium to the Chinese market, the world's No. 1 producer of secondary battery materials."
POSCO Group said it plans to expand cooperation to secondary battery material product lines such as ESS (energy storage systems) in line with its policy of diversifying its lithium iron phosphate (LFP) product portfolio.