Posted on 21 Oct 2025
South Korean battery materials producer POSCO Future M is reportedly starting operations at its planned facility in Canada in October next year, but is cancelling the second phase of the project.
Located in Bécancour, Quebec, the plant is being developed as part of Ultium CAM, an 85%-15% joint venture with US carmaker General Motors, Kallanish notes. Targeting a capacity of 30,000 tonnes/year, it was initially slated to be commissioned in July 2024.
The companies delayed the start of operations due to stagnation in the electric vehicle market. Amid renewed confidence that the secondary battery market will pick up, POSCO is looking to launch the project next October, BusinessKorea reports. The entire output of the first phase has been booked by Ultium Cells, the US-based cellmaking JV between GM and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution.
However, plans to expand its capacity to 45,000 t/y of precursors in a second phase have been scrapped, according to CBC. As a result, miner Vale Base Metals is no longer pursuing a nickel sulphate plant that would have also been located in Bécancour, CBC reports.
POSCO, GM, Ultium CAM, and Vale Base Metals were contacted for comment.
The news comes days after POSCO signed a KRW 671.04 billion ($471.7 million) supply contract with an undisclosed major automaker covering natural graphite anode materials. The agreement alone is worth 18.1% of the company’s 2024 sales.
In June 2023, GM said the Ultium CAM JV would support production of around 360,000 Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, Buick and BrightDrop vehicles annually in the 2025-2030 timeframe in North America. This assumed an annual EV capacity of 1 million units in the region in 2025.
Source:Kallanish
