Posco Future M, the battery materials subsidiary of Posco Group, has secured its largest anode materials contract to date, valued at 671 billion won (approximately $468.3 million), with a global automaker. Under the four-year agreement, the company will supply natural graphite anode materials from October 2027 through September 2031. A mutual option to extend the deal through 2037 could raise its total value to 1.7 trillion won. The customer’s identity remains undisclosed due to confidentiality provisions.
This contract reflects a broader shift in the electric vehicle industry, where automakers are increasingly partnering directly with upstream suppliers to mitigate supply chain disruptions and reduce dependence on Chinese materials amid U.S. tariffs and Chinese export controls. Traditionally, battery materials firms have supplied anode materials to cell manufacturers, but a growing number of original equipment manufacturers are pursuing “consignment supply” arrangements—purchasing materials themselves and providing them to battery producers—or integrating production within in-house battery subsidiaries.
“There are generally two types of battery material procurement by automakers,” said an industry source familiar with the matter on condition of anonymity.
“One is a ‘consignment supply’ arrangement, where the carmaker directly purchases anode materials and provides them to its battery manufacturer. The other involves using the materials for production within the automaker’s own battery subsidiary.”
Major U.S. automakers, including Tesla, General Motors and Ford, have already entered similar direct supply agreements and joint ventures to secure both cathode and anode materials for their electric vehicle batteries.
Posco Future M currently reprocesses spherical graphite—an intermediate material for lithium-ion battery anodes—imported from China at its Sejong plant, but plans to eliminate these intermediates entirely by 2027. The new anode material order will be produced at a spherical graphite processing facility now under construction in the Saemangeum National Industrial Complex in North Jeolla Province, using natural graphite sourced from African suppliers.
Competition from low-cost Chinese anode materials, priced at roughly $2 per kilogram—about 40–50 percent lower than Posco Future M’s products—has driven the utilization rate at the Sejong plant down from 67 percent in 2022 to around 30 percent in the first half of this year, resulting in losses of several hundred billion won. According to SNE Research, Chinese firms accounted for more than 80 percent of global anode shipments last year, while Posco Future M ranked 11th with a 1.3 percent market share, making it the highest-ranked non-Chinese supplier.
