On September 3, South Korea's Posco announced that it willinvest 45 trillion won (about 40.3 billion US dollars) in the next five yearsto upgrade its steel facilities and develop its future business.

It is understood that of the 45 trillion won of fundsinvested by Posco, about 26 trillion won (about 23.3 billion US dollars) willbe used to strengthen the steel business capacity. Posco plans to transform itssteel plant in Gwangyang, Jeollanam-do, into a smart factory. The company alsoplans to increase its production facilities for its high-end steel product,Giga steel. According to the conventional steel, Posco's “Gigao Steel” islighter in weight but stronger.

Posco said it will invest 10 trillion won (about 8.9 billionUS dollars) to develop its battery materials business. In recent years, Poscohas been developing technologies for extracting lithium from brine andextracting lithium from lithium-containing minerals and used batteries.Previously, Posco bought the lithium mining rights in Argentina from theAustralian lithium miner, Galaxy Resources. The company hopes to furtherincrease its lithium extraction technology and build more equipment to producelithium battery cathode materials by increasing investment.