LG to build joint company for battery recycling with Chinese partner

LG Energy Solution will join hands with Huayou Cobalt, China's No. 1 cobalt refinery company, to build a joint corporation to recycle batteries. The joint company will help improve supply stability of materials and promote stronger ESG management.

LG Energy Solutions announced on Tuesday that it had signed an MOU with Huayou to build a company for battery recycling by extracting key source materials from used batteries.

Huayou Cobalt is China's largest cobalt producer, and the joint company will become the first Korea-China company in the battery recycling business. Both companies are planning to discuss details of the operation and complete final signing by the end of the year.

The joint company will engage in business that extracts recycled nickel, cobalt and lithium from scraps and collected used batteries. Extracted materials will go through cathode materials production process, ultimately supplied to LG Energy Solution's battery production facility in Nanjing, China.

The pretreatment process of scraps and used batteries will take place in a factory to be built in Nanjing, while the post-processing of recycling metals, will take place in a new factory in Quzhou, where it will make use of Huayou's cobalt infrastructure.

LG Energy Solution is involved in other ways to promote a more stable supply chain for material sourcing. In December last year, it invested 60 billion won with LG Chem, acquiring 2.6 percent stake of Li-Cycle, the largest battery recycling business in North America. This will secure nickel supply of 20,000 tons for the next 10 years starting from next year. The company has also signed long-term supply agreements with Chile's SQM, the largest producer of lithium in the world, and German company Vulcan Energy, until 2029.


Teuk-Gyo Koo kootg@donga.com