POSCO Future M will build its first overseas production base for synthetic graphite anode materials in Vietnam. POSCO Future M received an investment registration certificate (IRC) for a synthetic graphite anode material project from Thai Nguyen province at a Korea-Vietnam business forum held in Hanoi, Vietnam. The ceremony held on the 23rd was attended by Trade Minister Kim Jung-kwan (김정관), POSCO Future M CEO Eom Ki-cheon (엄기천), Vietnam Finance Minister Ngo Van Tuan (응오 반 뚜언) and Thai Nguyen provincial People's Committee Chairman Vuong Quoc Tuan (브엉 꾸옥 뚜언), among others.

The IRC is an official license meaning approval has been completed for foreign companies to invest in Vietnam. POSCO Future M plans to invest about 357 billion won, break ground on a first-phase plant in the second half of this year at the Song Cong 2 industrial complex in Thai Nguyen province, and begin mass production in 2028. It has completed securing customers for the first-phase investment, and will carry out second-phase investment for additional orders.

Synthetic graphite anode material is a material favorable for improving fast-charging performance and lifespan of batteries. Demand is steadily increasing, but it is seen as a key material requiring supply chain diversification due to high dependence on specific countries. Demand for supply chain stabilization is also rising as global trade regulations tighten, including the introduction of U.S. PFE (Prohibited Foreign Entity) requirements and the announcement of Europe’s Industrial Acceleration Act (IAA). POSCO Future M has pursued building a production base in Vietnam while continuing supply talks with multiple customers for synthetic graphite anode materials amid this trend.

Vietnam allows reductions in investment, power, labor and logistics costs, making it favorable for securing cost competitiveness, the company emphasized. Thai Nguyen province is a major industrial city in northern Vietnam and is close to the capital Hanoi, making it easier to secure talent, and it is also adjacent to the port city of Haiphong, making it convenient to import raw materials and export products. Vietnam also has a favorable trade environment with major countries including the United States, making it highly useful as an export base, the company said, adding that this also served as background to the site selection.

POSCO Future M is pursuing supply chain internalization across the entire process, from raw materials to intermediate materials to product production, for natural and synthetic graphite anode materials. After signing a natural graphite anode material supply contract with a major Japanese battery company in July last year, it signed a 671 billion won natural graphite anode material supply contract with a global automaker in October of the same year, and in March this year it signed a synthetic graphite anode material supply contract worth about 1.01 trillion won. The contracts are package in nature, and it plans to push for expanded cooperation in the future to include cathode materials and lithium business areas.

POSCO Future M localized natural graphite anode materials in 2011, and established a mass production system in 2021 by completing a synthetic graphite anode material plant in Pohang. POSCO Group has expanded its business in Vietnam centered on steel operations such as POSCO Vietnam and POSCO Yamato Vina since opening its Hanoi office in 1991.

More recently, it has also moved to strengthen its logistics supply chain by establishing a Vietnam corporation through POSCO Flow, a unit of POSCO Holdings. POSCO Group’s policy is to use this investment as an opportunity to expand its business from steel to secondary battery materials and contribute to strengthening Korea-Vietnam economic cooperation.