POSCO INTERNATIONAL aims to complete global production cluster for traction motor cores

2024-03-18

Mar. 18, 2024 - The new president of POSCO INTERNATIONAL, Lee Kye-In, has chosen the global expansion of traction motor cores as his first move after taking office.

At the board of directors meeting held on Feb. 23, POSCO INTERNATIONAL (President Lee Kye-In) approved the construction of a new plant in Poland and a second plant in Mexico, completing the blueprint for the ‘era of producing 7 million traction motor cores by 2030.’

With this plan, the company will be able to establish a global production cluster for traction motor cores in five countries, including Korea (Pohang and Cheonan), Mexico, Poland, China, and India.

The Polish production plant, which will be the headquarters of POSCO INTERNATIONAL’s traction motor core business in Europe, will be located in Brzeg in southwestern Poland. It is located adjacent to the production bases of global automakers in Europe, namely in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, making it a prime spot for local procurement.

The new plant, set to be constructed on a 100,000 ㎡ plot, is due to start construction in June of this year, with completion expected by May 2025. The plant will expand its production scale according to the production plan to produce 1.2 million traction motor cores annually by 2030.

Starting with the production of 1.03 million traction motor cores ordered by Hyundai Motor Company in last January, the company plans to stabilize the plant’s operations by pursuing orders from major European customers.

In addition to the construction of the Polish plant, the board also approved the construction of the second plant in Mexico.

The construction of Plant 2 in Mexico is scheduled to begin in May this year and is expected to be completed by March next year. It will be built next to Plant 1, which was completed in Ramos Arizpe in October last year, and once completed, the combined production capacity of Plants 1 and 2 will amount to 2.5 million units annually by 2030.

In particular, Plant 2 in Mexico will serve as an essential production base to supply 2.72 million traction motor cores to Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA), which was contracted in September last year, while responding to the needs of customers for local production in North America.

POSCO INTERNATIONAL aims to achieve a 10% global share by 2030 by establishing a production and sales system to produce more than 7 million traction motor cores annually, and with this investment, the company got closer to realizing its vision.

In addition, by establishing localized production in three continents where major automakers are located, namely Asia, North America, and Europe, the company will improve its logistics competitiveness and counter trade barriers, while also laying the foundation to evolve into a core part manufacturer for the drivetrain of future eco-friendly vehicles, ensuring delivery to customers in the manner and at the time they want.

In his inaugural speech, Lee Kye-In, President of POSCO INTERNATIONAL, said, “The company’s future vision is to become a platform company that creates synergies across different businesses and creates new businesses.” He explained the plan to “innovate business models by solving customer problems through digital transformation (DX)” and urged the staff to participate in this plan.