LG Energy Solution has established a battery recycling joint venture (JV) with China's No. 1 cobalt producer Hua You Cobalt. It is the first South Korea-China joint venture battery recycling company in China.
LG Energy Solution announced on August 8 that it held a "Battery Recycling Joint Venture Agreement Signing Ceremony" on August 7 at Hua You Cobalt's headquarters in Zhejiang, China.
The new joint venture will extract core raw materials such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium from scrap, a waste product generated during the battery production process, and collected waste batteries.
The plan is to build a pre-processing plant to process scrap and waste batteries and a post-processing plant to process recycled metals in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, and Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province, respectively. Full-scale construction of the plants is expected to begin this year, with an expected start-up date of late next year.
The metals produced by the new JV will then be used to produce cathode materials, which will eventually be supplied to LG Energy Solution' Nanjing battery production plant.
By utilizing Hua You Cobalt's recycling technology, LG Energy Solution will be able to stably supply key raw materials through a virtuous cycle of resources, further enhancing its customer value capabilities in the recycling sector.
Hua You Cobalt Group also expects to achieve economies of scale and expand its business by securing stable recycling volumes and sales outlets through cooperation with LG Energy Solution, which has global mass production and quality competitiveness.
The two companies also plan to further solidify their strategic partnership and expand cooperation in the battery recycling business.
Meanwhile, LG Energy Solution is striving to build a virtuous cycle of resources by exploring new business opportunities in the battery recycling and reuse market and securing partnerships with competitive companies.
By 2027, the company plans to strengthen its ESG management by collaborating with leading companies across the entire value chain in its major production centers in the U.S., Poland, and Asia.
