LG Chem wins major customer for cathode material in the USA

LG Chem has established a solid foothold in the production of cathode material. The company has a production capacity of 150,000 tonnes per year.:100,000 tonnes are produced at the Korean plants in Cheongju and Gumi, and 50,000 tonnes at the manufacturer’s site in Wuxi, China. Another factory in the US state of Tennessee is scheduled to go online in 2026 with an annual capacity of 60,000 tonnes.

LG Chem has not disclosed how much will go to the new contract partner. There is only talk of a supply deal worth 3.76 trillion won (equivalent to around 2.2 billion euros) for cathode materials to be used in electric vehicles in the US. The contract runs from 15 November 2025 to 31 July 2029.

According to insiders, the customer is likely to be Panasonic. And: “The cathodes supplied to Panasonic will probably be used for Tesla batteries,” writes The Elec portal, for example. LG Chem already has another supply agreement with Panasonic: the South Korean company also manufactures cathode materials for Prime Planet Energy & Solutions (PPES), a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic.

Just a few months ago, Panasonic celebrated the opening of a new US factory for electric car cylindrical cells in De Soto, near Kansas City. This is the Japanese manufacturer’s second production facility in the US. Series production of 2170 cells has already begun in Kansas. How quickly Panasonic intends to scale up remained unclear at the inauguration in July.

The round cell format rolling off the production line in Kansas is mainly used by Tesla, the main customer, in some versions of the Model 3 and Model Y. What’s more, these round cells are also produced at the jointly operated Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. These two factories also give their name to Panasonic’s current activities in the US.

Panasonic is currently pursuing a so-called ‘two-region model’ with activities in Japan and North America. At the same time, the company is planning the imminent introduction of cells “with advanced materials that will increase cell capacity by about five per cent.” Against this backdrop, Panasonic had already ordered silicon anodes from manufacturer Nexeon in 2023. Panasonic’s lithium-ion cells currently have a volumetric energy density of 800 Wh/L.

thelec.net, mk.co.kr, businesskorea.co.kr

This article was first published by Cora Werwitzke for electrive’s German edition.