- South Korean battery and material manufacturers are delaying factory completion dates to reduce costs as weak electric vehicle (EV) demand hampers orders.
- EcoPro BM has also delayed its Pohang cathode material factory completion by two years, from December last year to December 2026.
South Korean battery and material manufacturers are delaying factory completion dates to reduce costs as weak electric vehicle (EV) demand hampers orders, struggling to utilise their expanded production capacity due to insufficient demand.
According to industry sources on January 7, that Kumyang has pushed back the completion of its secondary battery plant in Gijang, Busan from December last year to May this year. The 610 billion won ($420 million) facility, which began construction in September 2023, spans 124,479 square meters and is designed to produce cylindrical batteries in two sizes: 2170 (21mm diameter, 70mm height) and 4695 (46mm diameter, 95mm height). At full capacity, the plant will produce 300 million cells annually, enough to power 216,000 EVs per year.
While Kumyang completed the plant’s exterior construction last August and began installing equipment, insufficient orders have delayed its completion. The company secured its first contract on December 4 with US-based Nanotech Energy, a 2170 battery supply deal worth 81.2 billion won, and signed a 78.8-billion-won agreement with Korea’s electric bus maker Pline Motors on December 8 to supply batteries for 750 buses over five years. However, these contracts account for only a quarter of the plant’s investment cost.
EcoPro BM has also delayed its Pohang cathode material factory completion by two years, from December last year to December 2026. The plant was intended to produce next-generation NCMX (nickel-cobalt-manganese-additive) and single-crystal cathode materials, but a lack of orders led to the delay.
Lotte Energy Materials, a battery copper foil producer, has postponed the completion of its factory in Catalonia, Spain, from late this year to June 2027. The planned investment of 560 billion won to meet local European demand was scaled back, with last year’s investment dropping from 180 billion won to 25 billion won due to the delay.
POSCO Future M, facing competition from low-cost Chinese anode materials, reduced its planned expansion of synthetic graphite anode production at its Pohang Blue Valley plant from 18,000 tons to 13,000 tons annually in August last year.
The company also cut its 2026 production target from 221,000 tons to 113,000 tons, nearly halving the goal. The plant’s utilisation rate has fallen from 80-90 per cent in 2020 to around 30 per cent last year.
According to SNE Research, the global market share of South Korea’s top three battery makers in EV battery usage fell to 19.8 per cent between January and November last year, down 3.7 percentage points year-on-year.
To overcome the downturn, the battery and materials industry has implemented emergency management measures. Former EcoPro Chairman Lee Dong-chae described the situation as critical, saying, “Survival depends on complete transformation across all areas of management.”