South Korea's Posco to develop next-generation anode materials for secondary batteries

South Korea's Posco Group plans to develop next-generation anode materials for secondary batteries upon buying a 100% stake in Tera Technos, Posco said July 5.

It said Posco Holdings bought the stake in the Daejeon-based company which possesses silicon anode material production technology. Posco March 2 established the holding company whose main goals are to map out future business, research and development, and investment.

"Silicon anode material is a next-generation anode material that can increase the energy density by four times compared to the graphite anode material currently used in most lithium-ion batteries, thereby improving the driving range of electric vehicles and shortening the charging time," Posco said.

"The size of the silicone anode material market is expected to grow by 39% every year until 2030, and the silicone anode material content, which is currently less than 5%, is expected to expand to more than 10% in 2025 and more than 25% in 2030," it said.

POSCO plans to expand Tera Technos by the end of 2022 and mass produce and sell the latter's products in the first half of 2024.

The company aims to boost its production capacity of anode materials from 82,000 mt/year in 2022 to 138,000 mt/year in 2024 and to 320,000 mt/year in 2030.