South Korea’s POSCO signs long-term deal to buy lithium from Australia’s Pilbara (Reuters U.S. – February 27, 2018)

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SEOUL, Feb 27 (Reuters) – South Korean steelmaker POSCO on Tuesday said it had agreed to buy up to 240,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate per year from Australian miner Pilbara Minerals, using the commodity to help supply producers of electric vehicle batteries.

As part of the deal, the Australian unit of POSCO will acquire a 4.75 percent stake in Pilbara for A$79.6 million ($62.49 million).

POSCO said in a statement that it planned to make about 30,000 tonnes of lithium products per year starting from 2020. It plans to supply these to firms including battery material manufacturing affiliate POSCO ES Materials and its joint venture with China’s Huayou Cobalt Co Ltd, as well as South Korean battery makers.

Key South Korean battery makers include LG Chem, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation.

POSCO said the deal meant it had secured a stable source of raw materials for manufacturing batteries, adding that it would be able to choose between different sources of lithium depending on prices. It said other sources of the material included recycling.

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