South Korean battery materials maker Posco Future M has agreed to form a joint venture with a subsidiary of Philippine renewable energy company MC Group to produce raw materials for EV battery cathodes. The Philippines is said to have the world’s second-largest nickel reserves after Indonesia.
Posco Future M, a subsidiary of the steel giant Posco Group, signed a memorandum of understanding with Nickel Prime Solutions Inc to jointly build a plant in the Philippines for processing mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP) and producing high-purity nickel sulphate for EV battery cathodes. Nickel helps increase energy storage capacity in battery cathodes.
Posco is positioning itself as a leading global supplier of EV battery components and the agreement is the latest move by the company to bolster its global supply chain. This will be the company’s first overseas plant to produce refined battery ingredients.
According to Posco, the new joint venture will source nickel ore from an MC Group mine on the island of Palawan, which has an estimated 40 million tons of nickel reserves. The company said the new factory will use a new processing technology which is said to save costs and reduce carbon emissions compared with conventional processes.
The technology is currently under co-development by Posco and South Korea’s Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology based in the city of Pohang.
Cathodes produced by the joint venture will be eligible for tax incentives under the US Inflation Reduction Act due to Philippines’s status as a US free trade agreement partner.
