EVs will make up 54 percent of new car sales in 2040. (Source: Electrek)

Even though EVs make up about 1 percent of total new car sales in the U.S., EVs are on a steady, steep path upwards. According to a report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, EVs will make up 54 percent of new car sales by 2040, and by 2029, EVs will be cheaper to buy than gasoline and diesel-fueled cars.

The figures are significant and will translate into a sharp increase in demand for rechargeable batteries and their materials.

SEE ALSO: Ask an Expert: Electric Vehicles and the Future of the Automotive Market

The Evolution of EV Batteries

Before diving into the juicy details, it’s always helpful to cover the basics. Batteries are made up of 3 main components. The anode, or negative electrodes, the cathode, or positive electrodes and some type of electrolyte through which the electrodes travel to release chemical energy.

A simple battery can be made out of a potato, copper penny and galvanized nail. (Source: Tested)

The first rechargeable battery, lead-acid battery, was invented in 1859 by a physicist named Gaston Plante. Lead dioxide was the cathode material used, and lead was the anode material with a liquid solution of sulphuric acid and water as the electrolyte. The materials were affordable and the battery was applied to many early models of EVs, including early models of the Tesla Model S.

Another widely used battery that came after the lead-acid battery is the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery developed at the Battelle-Geneva Research Center in 1967. Nickel hydroxide was used as the cathode material while a hydrogen-absorbing alloy was used as the anode material. A liquid solution served as electrolytes. The research for NiMH batteries was extensive, and funded jointly by Daimler-Benz and Volkswagen AG. The batteries were also applied to many EV models such as the Toyota Prius, prior to 2015.

The Advent of Lithium-Ion Batteries

The introduction of lithium-ion batteries was a game-changer. Sony first introduced them in 1991, and today, most EVs have them, including the Tesla Model 3. The batteries consist of lithium-cobalt oxide cathodes, graphite anodes and the electrolyte is usually a solution of lithium salt and an organic solvent, though some automakers are experimenting with solid-state electrolytes.

The Tesla Model 3 has a lithium-ion battery. (Source: Green Car Reports)

Compared to its predecessors, lithium-ion batteries have the highest amount of stored energy and specific power, which is kind of like horsepower for electric cars. As a result of improved technology and lower costs, lithium-ion batteries are projected to make up 70 percent of the total rechargeable battery market by 2025, which will be worth roughly USD 112 billion.

Good as Gold

It is estimated that every 1 percent increase of EVs in the auto market will result in an additional 70,000 tons of lithium demand LCE per year.

In 2016, Australia topped the list for the most lithium produced with 14,300 metric tons. China and Zimbabwe are also top contenders producing 2000 and 900 metric tons in 2016, respectively. Then, there are the South American countries of Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia, also referred to as the “lithium triangle,” and home to 75 percent of the world’s lithium supply.

Workers at a brine pool at the Rockwood Lithium Plant on the Atacama salt flat. (Source: Reuters)

Does that mean the world has enough lithium to fuel the cars of tomorrow? The answer is yes, but there aren’t enough mines to produce them. In order to prevent environmental damage and the exploitation of unprotected workers, lithium producers have to get smart about lithium mining and production.

[clickToTweet tweet=”It is estimated that every 1 percent increase of EVs in the auto market will result in an additional 70,000 tons of lithium demand LCE per year- Visual Capitalist” quote=”It is estimated that every 1 percent increase of EVs in the auto market will result in an additional 70,000 tons of lithium demand LCE per year- Visual Capitalist” theme=”style6″]

POSCO’s Lithium Production  

Starting in 2010, POSCO and the Research Institute of Industrial Science & Technology (RIST) teamed up to develop a chemically based lithium extraction technology. The innovation cut down extraction time from up to 18 months down to between 8 hours and 1 month, delivering a purity rate of 99.9 percent. The recovery rate of lithium also increased to over 80 percent. POSCO is the world’s first corporation to commercialize the technology.

SEE ALSO: Lithium Rocks: POSCO at Forefront of a Green Energy Future

POSCO CEO Kwon Ohjoon holds lithium on his visit to PosLX, POSCO’s battery production factory in Korea.

It’s also at the heart of the lithium triangle. POSCO currently operates facilities in Chile’s Maricunga Salt Lake, Argentina’s Cauchari Salt Lake and Argentina’s Pozuelos Salt Lake, which alone will boost POSCO’s annual lithium production to 2,500 tons. POSCO also opened its first battery production plant in Korea earlier this year.  

The future of EVs is promising thanks to advancements being made in electric batteries, and there’s a lot at stake for the health and well being of future generations. Increasingly, the availability and costs of EV battery materials will play a vital role in market outcomes and widespread EV adoption. It is vital for companies like POSCO to provide abundant, sustainable and cost-friendly EV battery materials so automakers can continue to enhance the batteries of tomorrow’s cars.

Cover photo courtesy of Quartz.

While consumers are able to see benefits added to their daily lives with IoT, it is the adoption in the industry and manufacturing sectors that are seeing the most significant economic gains, reductions in waste, and higher quality production. IoT is expected to see massive growth in the next ten to fifteen years, and most of that growth is expected to come from enterprise adoption, or what is now called IIoT, the industrial internet of things.

Below we take a look at how businesses are implementing IIoT and how it is revolutionizing industries all over the world.

Volkswagen Truck & Bus Launches RIO Platform

Beginning in 2017, Volkswagen Truck & Bus began offering its  RIO platform, an open and cloud-based “operating system.” RIO is unique in that it can connect multiple pieces of the global supply chain regardless of brand. Because the shipping and logistics industries utilize many different brands and types of equipment, it has been difficult to make the process more connected and more sustainable – but RIO does just that.

Shippers, dispatchers, carriers, drivers, and recipients can all be connected with a uniform logistics platform that includes forecasting features. RIO looks at information from traffic, weather, and navigation and combines it with information from tractors, trailers, bodies, drivers, and orders so that it can offer recommendations in real time.

Volkswagen Truck & Bus utilize IIoT technology to help compile information across multiple brands and types of logistics equipment. (Photo courtesy of Volkswagen AG)

In utilizing IIoT technology, Volkswagen can streamline the vast information sources across brands that will help improve the transportation and reloading process. As Volkswagen Truck & Bus CEO Andreas Renschler noted, this is not just good for efficiency and the company’s bottom line, it is also good for the environment. Being able to real-time decisions through multiple sensors and input, there will be fewer empty trucks on the road and far less waste.  

Caterpillar IIoT Saves Money, Increases Uptime

In the U.S., construction and mining equipment company Caterpillar is utilizing IIoT to help customers monitor their equipment to increase efficiency. Partnering with Uptake, a predictive analytics firm, Caterpillar sends data gathered from sensors on its products and sends it into the cloud for diagnostic analysis. Caterpillar then provides its customers with vital information related to their equipment so that they have the ability to plan maintenance schedules more efficiently. If customers can know that several parts are likely to need to be replaced, these can be fixed all at once while the equipment is offline instead of having each one break individually while in use. This ultimately helps prevent costly downtime providing customers with uninterrupted productivity.

Caterpillar also integrated advanced IIoT systems in their Marine Division to help monitor almost every aspect of their tugboats and shipping vessels. The generators, engines, GPS, air conditioning systems, and fuel meters are all connected and providing valuable data for the systems operators.

Caterpillar’s IIoT systems can now look at GPS and weather information to help guide the ship operators in how much power to use when operating their vessels. Also, when Caterpillar looked at performance data and hull cleaning correlations, they learned that dirty hulls were costing more than $5 million per year in decreased performance. By changing the cleaning schedule from once every two years to once every six months, they were able to save $400,000 per year per ship.

POSCO Implements AI Into Its Smart Factories

POSCO’s Gwangyang Works is one of the top automotive coated steel plants in the world, providing 10% of global supply. During automotive steel production, one of the most critical steps is the coating weight process. When coating weight is controlled manually, quality deviates depending on the skill level of the worker, inevitably resulting in significant amounts of wasted zinc, so POSCO implemented IIoT technology to improve efficiency and product quality & consistency.  

POSCO workers monitor the optimal coating weight predicted through IIoT and AI. It is now possible to collect hundreds of different types of data and make adjustments in real time for complex coating weights

This highly-sophisticated technology helps keeps the thickness of the coating layer consistent – even when operating conditions change suddenly. They have installed a data integration infrastructure that uses an automated control technology that predicts the coating weight of zinc in automotive steel to precisely control the Continuous Galvanizing Line (CGL). In combination with the coating weight system, they have also created a data pre-analysis system that can preemptively detect abnormalities. The implementation of this technology has helped to increase the quality of POSCO’s automotive coated steel while also decreasing production costs.

Advancements in IoT technology are changing the way people live, but behind the scenes, at manufacturing facilities around the world, IIoT is having an even greater impact. Companies like Volkswagen, Caterpillar, and POSCO are leading the way to create more efficient and sustainable production methods using IIoT.

Fortune announces the top 500 global brands every year by selecting them based on performance in areas such as sales and operating profit from the previous year. POSCO ranked 161^st, 146^th, 167^th, 177^th, 162^nd each year since 2011, and 173^rd this year.

This is the result of the company furthering their technological developments and creating profits through cost reduction and innovation projects, all despite the global steel crisis that has continued for years.

Among the global steelmakers, ArcelorMittal ranked 123^rd, NSSMC 238^th, and Baoshan steel 275^th.

Meanwhile, U.S. company Walmart has been ranked number one for three consecutive years, with Exxon Mobil, Volkswagen, Toyota and Apple also being included in the top 10 list. Along with POSCO, a total of 15 Korean companies including Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motors were included in the 500 companies listed. The number of Chinese companies in the list has been steadily increasing from 95 in 2013 to 110 this year.

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Revitalizing the Local Economy

POSCO produced over 8.5 million tons of auto sheets last year and is expecting to increase production to 10 million tons by 2017 with the expansion of its 7CGL production line in Gwangyang and Thailand, solidifying its position as the second largest steelmaker in the world.

For the construction of the Gwangyang 7CGL, POSCO plans to perform all work in-house, using its own engineering efforts without hiring large-scale engineering companies. By doing so, POSCO expects to reduce huge investment costs by applying POSCO’s own unique technologies, including annealing furnace compactification, internal oxidation technology and more. Furthermore, under difficult steelmaking situation internally and externally, construction of the Gwangyang 7CGL is expected to contribute to the revitalization of the local economy by creating more than 160,000 jobs per year and placing orders to small and medium-sized equipment suppliers and construction companies based in Gwangyang and Jeolladamdo.

Over 130 interested parties, including Young-hoon Lee, Head of Finance and Investment Division of POSCO, Tong-il An, General Superintendent of Gwangyang Works, the governor of Jeollanamdo and the mayor of Gwangyang City, attended the ground breaking ceremony.

In the second part of POSCO Weekly’s series featuring the recipients of POSCO’s Excellent Overseas Affiliate Prize, we introduce to you POSCO-CLPC, the recipient of the Market Frontier Prize, to share its achievements in amplifying sales and solidifying client relationships. (See the previous post here.)

POSCO-CLPC (President Lee Joo-sung) was established in July 2010 in the Shenyang-EU Economic Development Zone in Liaoning Province, China. Due to the increased automobile production in Northeast China, and subsequently the rising demand for automotive flat products, POSCO-CLPC now has an annual processing capacity of 170,000 tons.

POSCO-CLPC processes and supplies automotive flat products to carmakers such as FAW-VW, a joint venture between China FAW Group Corporation and Volkswagen, BMW Brilliance Automotive and Shanghai General Motors, using a just in time (JIT) production strategy. It also provides steel processing services to automotive component manufacturers in order to meet customers’ needs.

Starting with a sales of 38,000 tons in 2010, POSCO-CLPC has been showing steady growth, reaching an accumulated sales of 500,000 tons in December 2014. In 2014 alone, it achieved its highest annual sales record of 158,000 tons.

The year 2014 was a meaningful one for POSCO-CLPC, as its business endeavors to prepare for the increasing manufacturing capacity of BMW Brilliance and Shanghai GM in the Shenyang region came to fruition. After successful testing on seven auto parts, POSCO-CLPC became the new supplier of those parts and components, and its sales for BMW Brilliance has since doubled, compared to its 2013 figures.

Additionally, POSCO-CLPC has won a contract to offer blanking and molding services to BMW Brilliance for the BMW2 model, solidifying the relationship between the two companies.

Meanwhile, POSCO-CLPC’s sales volume for Shanghai GM and automotive component manufacturers has remarkably increased in response to the business trends of customers and the expansion of its supply to manufacturers of auto parts.

In recognition for its achievements in amplifying sales and solidifying relationships with its clients, POSCO-CLPC was selected as an Excellent Overseas Affiliate and awarded the Market Frontier Prize in March.

POSCO-CLPC is planning to increase its sales of automotive parts for upcoming vehicles in partnership with POSCO Headquarters, and to actively seek new opportunities to grow its business with global automotive component manufacturers that are scheduled to relocate to Shenyang. Also, it will expand its World Premium (WP) products and develop new opportunities for the sales of a variety of steel products, including stainless steel and electrical steel.

The manufacturing field of automobiles, energy, home appliances, electronics is earning spotlight as it is creating value, in the Europe market, which continuously creates new fascinating trends. POSCO has been widely introducing its brand’s value by establishing a cooperation system among Steel Business Headquarters, Pohang and Gwangyang Steel Works, Europe Offices, European Local Processing Centers, Logistics Centers, and performing effective correspondence against European clients’ demand of steel. POSCO shows its global potential by providing competitive steel within the European market, and which captivates its clientele.

Global Automotive Materials Marketing with Volkswagen and More

With the basis of its global production and sales network, POSCO is enhancing automotive flat product sales in the growth area of strategic demand. This year’s automotive flat product sales amount is expected to exceed 8 million tons.

Especially, Volkswagen, a German automobile manufacturer, is solidifying a cooperative relationship by highly evaluating POSCO’s value creation capability that is based on strict quality and time control.

The Volkswagen headquarters in Germany and global Volkswagen factories are improving their automotive material supply and quality stability through POSCO’s global infrastructure. Moreover, Volkswagen is discussing various combined efforts with POSCO for the purpose of vehicle weight reduction and production cost reduction. With a solid basis of trust from European clients like Volkswagen, POSCO is expected to speed up its advancement in the world market.

EVI Activities for the Energy/Offshore Plant Industry

The energy/offshore plant industry is high in change of risk and difficult to predict. In terms of technology and marketing, a high entry barrier exists because the industry only purchases steel materials from exclusive suppliers with stringent quality certification.

However, various EVI (Early Vendor Involvement) activities has enabled POSCO to form a network in the European energy/offshore plant industry in a notably rapid pace. For example, POSCO has been developing steel and technology solution with the perspectives of clients and expanding business channels based on the development and constantly seeking for new business opportunities.

Through cooperation of POSCO Steel Business Headquarter, Poyang/Gwangyang Steel Works, the Research Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (RIST) and European offices, POSCO is executing marketing activities and expanding direct business with major European oil companies such as Shell and Saipem. With a basis on solution marketing of quality certification and technology collaboration, POSCO is promoting to advance to the extended market by forming close relationships with major European client companies.

New Renewable Energy Materials Development

Sales of steels for the new renewable energy industry is another example of POSCO’s effort to expand business in the European market. In May 2012, Siemens and POSCO signed the MOU for cooperation in steel, energy and material field’s business and technology development. They have been discussing a joint promotion approach for steel technology cooperation, new material business and more.

As the general interests in green energy and demand for new renewable energy growth escalate in Europe, Siemens is also increasing its productions for green energy installations such as a wind power generator. In response, POSCO suggested a new type of steel that suits the characteristics of wind power generator materials in the European market. Since this year, POSCO is developing and selling high magnetic non-oriented electrical steel sheet targeting the new renewable energy generator. POSCO is responding preemptively to the client’s request in addition to its product development and supply.

Targeting the Premium Home Appliance Market in Europe

In the field of display home appliances in the European premium market, Samsung electronics and LG electronics, the global home appliance companies of Korea, are standing at the front line in the local market. Before the companies execute their successful strategies for Europe, POSCO’s preemptive material supply comes first. Especially due to the industry’s fast cycle of new product releases, POSCO predicts the technical transformation of display home appliances and prepare for the prospective demand for steel materials. Accordingly, POSCO is operating with a response strategy to provide future home appliance material.

In 2007, POSCO founded POSCO-PWPC( Poland Wroclaw Processing Center) with LG International Corp. in Poland. Moreover, establishing POSS-SLPC(POSCO SAMSUNG Slovakia Steel Processing Center) with Samsung C&T in Slovakia, POSCO is supporting the display home appliance material for the European market. Currently, Samsung electronics and LG electronics are expanding their influence across Europe. As a stable partner company for materials, POSCO will supply competitive materials and solution.

Client Acquisition through Solution Marketing for STS Clients

Occupying about 15% of the worldwide demand, Europe is a global STS cold-rolled steel market where its annual demand is about 3 million tons. Especially, Italy and Germany are known as the top two STS markets of Europe. Located in Vallese di Oppeano complex, POSCO-ITPC (Italy Processing Center) is POSCO’s very first STS product processing center established in Europe. The processing ability of the center is about 35 thousand tons per year.

Deviating from previous distribution system through the establishment of POSCO-ITPC, POSCO was able to adopt a system of integrating the global STS production center’s products and selling to the actual demanders in Europe. At the same time, POSCO became capable of high quality processing and Just-In-Time production requested by the European client companies demanding high quality STS.

While executing various marketing activities to procure stable client groups of STS demand in the European market, POSCO-ITPC has obtained more than 140 clients of actual demand after only one year since its foundation. Also, rather than simply providing a cutting service of STS products, POSCO is strategically reinforcing its cooperative relationships by expanding client-oriented solution marketing activities. For example, POSCO is providing combined-processed product service to create added value and high quality processing service for excellent abrasive products. As a result of these efforts, POSCO-ITPC continues to create business profits from January 2014, which is only three months after its operation launch.

The busy Mexican automobile industry has ushered in a valuable new asset—a steel galvanizing plant from Korea.

On January 28^th in Altamira, Tamaulipas, POSCO completed construction on its second Continuous Galvanizing Line (CGL) in Mexico. The plant has added 500,000 tons of steel added to POSCO’s yearly capacity in the region. With its completion, POSCO has become Mexico’s largest producer of plated steel sheets for automobiles.

[box] What’s a Continuous Galvanizing Line? Almost nothing is stronger than steel—but without protection from water and weather, the backbone of the world’s industries will rust. Galvanization is the process of applying zinc coating to bare steel in order to prevent rust and make steel more durable. Steel can be protected from rust by paint or powder, too. But coating steel with zinc is more permanent. Galvanization means that even if steel’s painted surface is scratched off, it won’t corrode. Galvanized steel is therefore used for products that need to be extra durable—like cars. In a continuous galvanizing line (CGL), ribbons of fresh, newly-pressed steel are treated with zinc as they roll down a factory in a never-ending line. It’s kind of like a cafeteria line… if zinc were your lunch! Efficient, right? [/box]

In a ceremony commemorating the factory’s opening, POSCO welcomed more than 300 people, including Mexican government officials and employees from client companies like Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Volkswagen. The ceremony was led by key figures like Egidio Torre Cantú, governor of Tamaulipas, Seonghoa Hong, Korean ambassador to Mexico, and POSCO’s own CEO, Joonyang Chung.

Chung addressed close partnership between Mexico and Korea as a major factor in the new plant’s success. “The 2CGL factory is an extension of the road to friendship that POSCO and Mexico have been developing since our Mexico office was established in 1981,” he said. “I would like to give my deepest thanks to the many government officials, client companies, and suppliers who made successful completion of this factory possible. POSCO will continue in its efforts to supply premium quality automobile steel plates.”

In recent years, Mexico’s role in the world’s automobile industry has jumped by leaps and bounds. Companies like Volkswagen, Chrysler, GM, and Renault Nissan entered Mexico chasing the country’s low labor costs as well as its proximity to the USA, which is the world’s second-largest automobile market.

Nearly 1,000 global parts companies followed, including Autotech and Benteler Automotive, giving Mexico’s production market some of the high growth potential in existence.

Now, the country is the world’s 5^th-largest automobile export country. Last year, it exported 2.4 million automobiles. Honda, Mazda, and Nissan are all upping their Mexican production lines for new steel plates as a result.

POSCO’s Role

2CGL, as the new galvanizing line is called, is POSCO’s second plant in Altamira. The company opened its first Mexican CGL in 2009. Combined, the two plants have 900,000 tons of automobile steel plate production capacity.

The main product of 2CGL will be a type of galvanized steel plate used in the exterior panels of high-end automobiles. The most in-demand products are the “GI Ace,” which has improved coating and processing capabilities, and the “780㎫ class AHSS steel”, a premium-grade steel plate that is lighter but more resistant to external impacts. The plates’ high quality and demand from the world’s leading automobile manufacturers is expected to add even more value to Mexico’s industry as a result.

In addition to its automobile steel plate factories, POSCO also has four steel processing centers in Mexico: POSCO-MPPC Plants 1, 2, and 3; plus POSCO-MAPC.

Contribution to the local economy and promotion of the automobile market are among POSCO’s major goals in Mexico. It also strives for sustainable growth in the local community.

A 500,000 ton annual capacity 2CGL factory in Mexico, completed by POSCO on January 28^th, 2014. With the establishment of 900,000 tons of production capacity in the country, POSCO hopes to secure a foundation from which they can lead in the local industry’s production of high added-value products.

Before the construction of CGL in Guangdong, POSCO had manufactured auto steel plates in the Gwangyang Steelworks in Korea and supplied the products to POSCO China and 11 other manufacture centers to complete and sell them across the nation. Now, POSCO is capable of offering ever more optimized customer services with the advanced production line to meet local clients’ needs in a timely manner. Furthermore, we anticipate POSCO to hold a firmer stance as a global steel manufacturer by acquiring an overseas production base in China, a highly booming nation with large scale automotive industries.

CEO Chung said “POSCO’s CGL in Guangdong will play a vital role for promoting the province’s status as a core global production base for motor industry and related fields. It will be assisted with high-end auto steel plates and household steel plates produced in the new production line.”

After the ceremony, the CEO met with Hu Chunhua, Secretary of a Guangdong provincial Party Committee who also congratulated the completion of CGL and praised the contribution made by POSCO. CEO Chung agreed with the secretary’s appraisal and illustrated his beliefs in the mutual development of Guangdong and POSCO as he felt confident in the partnership between the two.

POSCO will continue with the achievement by planning to manufacture 450,000 tons of galvanized steel sheets annually from the new manufacturing base, working with POSCO-CFPC in Guangdong, POSCO-CSPC in Jiangsu as well as 11 other manufacture centers in China. The products will be supplied to Toyota, Honda, Nissan, GM, Volkswagen, Hyundai, KIA and local car manufacturers.