[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] P&O Chemical, a joint venture between POSCO Future M and OCI Holdings, produces pitch for coating battery cathode materials for the first time in Korea.

P&O Chemical announced on the 13th that it held a ceremony to mark the completion of the peach plant at Tancheon Industrial Complex in Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do.

The plant, which was completed on the same day, can produce 15,000 tons of high softening point pitch annually that is used to manufacture batteries needed for about 3 million electric vehicles. Pitch is manufactured by processing by-products such as coltar and residual oil generated by coal or oil refining, and is used as a raw material for electrode rods that trigger heat in cathode material coatings or steel mills.

The pitch produced by P&O Chemical is a petroleum-based high soften point product used for cathode material coating because it can withstand higher temperatures than normal pitch, and it reduces battery expansion and increases the speed of charging and discharge.

With the completion of the peach plant, POSCO Future M will establish a full value chain that will lead to the production of cathode materials, intermediate materials and final products, following anode materials.

 

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