POSCO Holdings Inc. (NYSE:PKX) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jeong Ki-Seop: Yes, thank you very much for the questions. So the first question was about, the H2 sales volume outlook and also any room to improve performance in H2. So, Mr. Kim Seung-Jun of the finance team will give you the answer. And the second question was about the lithium and you talked about the EBITDA margin. And Mr. Lee Kyung-seop will give you the answer. The Head of LiB Materials Business will give you the answer. And for POSCO Inter Co, Mr. Jeong Dae-Hyung will give you the answer. He’s the Head of the Corporate Strategy team.

Kim Seung-Jun: Yes. Hello. Well, as for H2 sales volume outlook, well, if you look at H1 in Q1, operation did not recover fully. So because of that, it did not fully normalize, but it normalized in Q2. So we were able to rebound. But in Q3 and Q4 compared to H1, we won’t have much repair of the facilities. So compared to H1, we do believe that the sales volume will slightly go up. But then, if you look at the China’s reduction of production or expectations for economic recovery in H2, well, if we were to consider that, I do believe that in H2 sales volume will slightly recover, and also for H2 performance. Now in Q2, the steel market conditions hit bottom, but it bottomed up. And also if you looked at the raw materials and iron ore, the price stabilized.

So the low cost raw materials consumption may recover. And that will bring an upward trend to the sales volume for the company. And as a result, we believe that we could drive up the cost slightly in H2. So we do believe that in H2 we’ll able to post a better performance than H1. That’s what we are aiming for and we do believe that it will going to happen. Thank you.

Lee Kyung-seop: Yes, about lithium and the price for lithium, and by 2030 the lithium project goal is as follows: So hundred thousand tons of lithium and ore, or we have 220,000, and we have clay lithium as well as the low type, so recycle about 30,000. So that is the mix of lithium. Now, if you look at brine lithium, the reason why we do not increase the share of brine is this: So now the plan is at 420,000 and we want to make the minerals available and we wanted to attain a reasonable goal. But if you look at Argentine, Bolivia, and Chile, while these three countries produce the most brine. And for Argentine, they have small scale mines, where also the lithium content tends to be low. So the quality is low for some mines. And for the large scale, the high quality ones, we see depletion of such as salt flat.

So in Argentine, we plan to increase the size at a smaller scale, but we don’t see any new opportunities for big size saltwater lithium mining. And for Chile, we are now in the process of winning the license for mining rights. And once that is complete or over, we believe that instead of transferring that to the private sector, Chile said that the government will take the ownership. And of course if they were to open the bidding to the private sector, then we could join the biding. However, we don’t have any plans for that. And for Bolivia, now the product itself has been nationalized. So we do not see any potential opportunities in Bolivia. Now we have Australia and [indiscernible]. So for instance, North America, we have mining lithium and we plan to focus on those locations and strike a deal with the local companies.