POSCO Future M said on March 16 it signed a long-term supply contract with a global automaker for synthetic graphite anode material worth more than 1 trillion won.

The contract is worth about 1.01 trillion won, the largest since it entered the anode-material business in 2011. The contract period is 5 years from 2027 to 2032 and can be extended through mutual agreement. The company deferred disclosure of the customer until the end of the contract, citing business confidentiality.

The contract is a package with a supply agreement for natural graphite anode material signed with a global automaker in October last year. POSCO Future M plans to expand cooperation with the customer into cathode materials and lithium businesses. In July 2025 it signed a supply deal worth about 670 billion won for natural graphite anode material with a major Japanese battery maker, and in October that year it signed another natural graphite anode material supply deal worth about 670 billion won with a global automaker.

To meet the orders, POSCO Future M decided on March 5 to invest about 357 billion won to build a synthetic graphite anode material plant in Vietnam. With the latest contract, it secured a customer for its first-phase investment. It plans to proceed with a second-phase investment depending on additional orders.

POSCO Future M is the only company in South Korea to produce graphite-based anode material, and it localized natural graphite anode material in 2011. In 2021 it completed a synthetic graphite anode material plant in Pohang and established a mass-production system. It is also pursuing in-house supply chain capabilities across the entire process from raw materials to intermediate materials and final products.

It also uses coke made from coal tar from POSCO's steelmaking process as the raw material for synthetic graphite anode material. For natural graphite anode material, it plans to build a supply chain that processes imported graphite ore from Africa and other regions at its Saemangeum spherical graphite plant. Beyond natural and synthetic graphite, it is also pursuing commercialization of silicon anode material for all-solid-state batteries. It is currently holding talks with multiple customers in South Korea, North America and the European Union on supplies of cathode and anode materials.

A POSCO Future M official said, "Based on our supply chain solutions and technological capabilities, we are holding talks with multiple customers in South Korea, North America and the EU on supplies of cathode and anode materials." The official added, "We will continue to enhance business competitiveness and expand sales, with the aim of going beyond being the only company in South Korea that produces both cathode and anode materials to becoming a global top-tier battery materials player."