POSCO Future M, LG Energy Solution Sign MOU on 720,000 Tons of Materials
POSCO Future M expects to supply LG Energy Solution 720,000 tons of cathode and anode materials from 2027 to 2033 under an MOU. LFP cathode starts early 2027, and a formal contract is planned within 2026.
Energy & Cooling DeskEdited by Ege Erten
2 min readAI-assisted
A POSCO Future M cathode plant, from the company's newsroom. The image is a company file photo and is not specific to the MOU announced Oct. 30.
Image: POSCO Future M
Source · Press image from the POSCO Future M newsroom, used for news reporting.
POSCO Future M said on Oct. 30 that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with LG Energy Solution (LGES) under which it expects to supply a combined 720,000 tons of cathode and anode materials over seven years, from 2027 through 2033, according to Seoul Economic Daily.
The MOU points to 720,000 tons of cathode and anode materials from 2027 to 2033, a company expectation rather than a signed contract.
Illustration (AI-generated)
The memorandum is not a purchase contract. The two companies said they will fix product plans and a supply roadmap and then sign a formal contract within this year, Seoul Economic Daily and Financial News reported. No contract value, price or split between cathode and anode tons has been disclosed.
For cell supply, the notable change is the product mix. POSCO Future M is converting a high-nickel NCM (nickel-cobalt-manganese) cathode line at its Pohang plant to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and plans to start LFP cathode supply to LGES from early next year, Financial News reported. The company said LFP demand is rising with AI data center energy storage and lower-priced EVs. It also plans a later LFP cathode made with a new process using POSCO Group's Argentine brine lithium.
What the POSCO Future M–LGES MOU Covers
On the anode side, POSCO Future M will supply synthetic graphite made in Korea and Vietnam, which it says helps fast charging and cycle life. That is the company's claim, and no test figures were published. The NCM cathode that POSCO Future M already ships to LGES stays in the mix, with a medium-to-long-term plan to raise the share of metals recovered from spent batteries to cut cost.
The memorandum also names joint development and supply of ultra-high-nickel cathode, sodium-ion battery materials and silicon anode materials. The companies said they will look for joint responses to supply-chain rules such as the US prohibited foreign entity requirements and Europe's Industrial Accelerator Act.
How the MOU Compares With the 2023 Contract
The earlier agreement was binding. In April 2023, POSCO Future M signed a contract worth 30.26 trillion won ($22.6 billion) to supply high-nickel cathodes to LGES from 2023 to 2029, KED Global reported. It is not stated whether the new 720,000 tons includes any of those volumes, so the two figures should not be added together.
The LFP shift matters for the storage market, where LGES has been lining up deals such as its target of 2 GWh of ESS supply with Energix, which Voltgrid reported. Cell makers need a steady cathode supply to ramp LFP output, and this memorandum ties part of that supply to a Korean line from 2027, if the Pohang conversion stays on schedule.
Still open are the formal contract, its value, how many tons are cathode and how many are anode, and when the converted Pohang line reaches full output. The sources are Korean press reports of the company's statement, and no English-language release from POSCO Future M was available.
