Trading Company Sets Coahuila as Gateway to Largest EV Market

As US President Joe Biden’s green mobility policy intends to transform the auto industry through EV promotion, Posco International’s US$43.6 million investment in an electric vehicle traction motor core plant in Coahuila aims to target North America, considered the largest EV market.

South Korea-based Posco International, a trading company subsidiary of steel making POSCO, announced its plans to build in June a facility to produce EV motor cores in Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila. The city is one of Mexico’s most important automotive clusters that houses automobile factories from General Motors, Fiat Group, Chrysler, Daimler and Freightliner. 

“We will use our Mexican production subsidiary as an outpost for the production of electric vehicle components. By combining our years of overseas investment experience, Posco’s technological competitiveness and material capabilities, we will play a key role in realizing the group’s carbon neutrality goal,” said the company after POSCO announced it will work with hydrogen fuel cells and has committed to using renewable energy since 2013. 

Operations are strategically set to begin until 2H23 after Biden announced the nation’s eco-friendly mobility policy, where half of the new cars would be replaced by EVs in 2030 and 500,000 EV charging stations across the country are expected to be built. 

For this reason, Posco International plans that by 2030 the production volume of traction motors, which are used to drive force to EVs and are made with solid magnetic steel, will reach 1.5 million units. 

The company’s strategy becomes more important after the signing of the executive order on Dec. 8th by President Biden regarding the country’s plan to achieve a full clean energy economy via federal sustainability. It establishes 2035 as the goal for the US to reach 100 percent acquisition of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs). 

“The executive order will reduce emissions across federal operations, invest in American clean energy industries and manufacturing, and create clean, healthy, and resilient communities,” reads the White House briefing. 

The briefing also declares that the US government will work with American manufacturers and installers to develop the country’s industrial capacity to supply ZEVs and EV batteries, however, to meet the Paris Agreement commitments and accelerate progress, the US has recurred to domestic and international partnerships over the past two years.

POSCO has proven to have a significant presence in the American market after its subsidiary, Posco International, recently secured a US$122 million agreement to supply parts for the electric vehicles of California-based automaker Rivian. 

In addition, Posco Chemicals, another POSCO subsidiary, announced a joint venture with General Motors’ electric vehicle platform Ultium in North America.

The company itself signed a Memorandum of understanding on Dec. 31st with New Mexico-based Array Technologies, which according to POSCO’s press release, it is “the world’s second manufacturer of ground-mounting systems used in solar energy projects”, where the companies have “decided to cooperate in the supply, design, and development of technologies for materials.”