“9일, EcoPro’s subsidiary EcoProBM announced that it is collaborating with GEM, a Chinese raw material manufacturer, to pursue a business encompassing the entire ecosystem of secondary battery cathode materials with Indonesia as the base.
According to EcoPro, on this day, CEO Im Dong-chae met with GEM Chairman He Gae-hwa at the EcoPro headquarters in Ochang, Cheongju, and agreed on this business direction, personally explaining the purpose of the business to the employees.
Former CEO Lee stated, ‘Without destructive innovation, it is impossible to break through the current ‘cassettes’ (temporary demand stagnation in the electric vehicle market),’ and said, ‘If EcoPro remains complacent in the present, it could disappear in 3 to 4 years.’ He also announced, ‘Based on the strong trust built with GEM over the past 10 years, we have decided to pursue a business in Indonesia to establish an integrated system covering refining, raw materials, and cathode materials.’
Through this agreement, the two companies plan to establish a business structure that collaborates from refining minerals such as graphite to extracting metals like lithium and nickel, as well as producing cathode materials in the production process.
An EcoPro official explained, ‘GEM has secured top-tier competitiveness in nickel refining, while EcoPro, as the world’s number one in high-nickel cathode materials, sees the cooperation between the two as a ‘game-changer.”
EcoPro plans to quickly finalize the business structure by forming a task force (TF) to carry out practical work with GEM.”