POSCO Holdings, GS Energy In Tie-Up To Recycle Secondary Batteries

POSCO Holdings has announced that it has signed an agreement for the establishment of a secondary battery recycling joint venture with GS Energy called ‘POSCO-GS Eco Materials.’

The official statement held that the agreement was signed on October 6. POSCO Holdings signed a joint venture agreement with GS Energy to establish a new company, POSCO-GS Eco Materials at the POSCO Center. POSCO Group CEO Jeong-woo Choi, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Green Materials & Energy Business Team Byeong-og Yoo, Executive VP and Head of LiB Materials Business Kyung-sub Lee, and GS Holdings Chairman Tae-soo Huh, President Soon-ky Hong and CEO Yong-soo Huh among others.

Jeong-woo Choi, POSCO Group, CEO, said, “Starting in 2030, using secondary battery reusable raw materials will become mandatory in Europe, so it is expected that the secondary battery recycling market will grow further. I expect that with this cooperation between POSCO and the GS Group, not only will dead batteries be stably secured but there will be a big synergy effect to build a new industry ecosystem for secondary battery recycling.”

Tae-soo Huh, GS Holdings, Chairman, stated, “If we gather business ability between the two groups, we can facilitate the energy transformation to meet evolving demands of industry and society, and create new business opportunities. This cooperative business means not only future growth between GS and POSCO but also customer and social value.”

POSCO held that in a top management meeting in September 2021, POSCO Group and GS Group discussed key new business cooperative options such as secondary battery recycling, which bore the first fruit with the establishment of POSCO-GS Eco Materials in which POSCO Holdings and GS Energy invested around KRW 170 billion, and their share ratio is 51% and 49%, respectively.

POSCO Holdings and GS Energy are scheduled to establish the corporation within the year after signing the agreement.

POSCO-GS Eco Materials will not only pursue the secondary battery recycling business by collecting dead batteries and extracting raw materials, but will also expand business to diagnose, evaluate, and reuse secondary batteries like battery-as-a-service (BaaS).