Iron ore weakness to continue into 2025 and beyond, says Fitch Solutions’ BMI
Looking beyond 2024-2025, BMI analysts maintained their view that iron ore prices will likely follow a multi-year downtrend.
South Korea’s Lotte Energy Materials Corp. said on Tuesday it aims to become the world’s top producer of high-end copper foil by 2028, as rising demand for reasonably-priced electric vehicles (EVs) will grow the market for the key battery component.
Chief executive officer Kim Yeon-seop said demand for copper foil will expand to 2.2 million tonnes by 2030, a fourfold increase from the current 500,000 tonnes.
The company, a unit of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, said automakers are increasingly adopting high-end foil to boost the performance of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are cheaper than nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries.
Lotte Energy, formerly Iljin Materials Co., aims to secure 30% of that market and is targeting 20 trillion won ($15.3 billion) in orders by 2025, its CEO said at a press conference.
To achieve such goal, is developing solid-state electrolyte for pilot production by 2024, as well as next-generation silicon anodes and assembly lines for mass production of LFP cathodes.
Kim Yeon-seop said Lotte Energy will also work on expanding its facility in Spain, build a new one in the US to benefit from Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and develop next-generation battery materials such as LFP cathodes and silicon anodes.
