Posco Group chief calls for bold portfolio overhaul to seize growth opportunities

"Now, as supply chain instability and the accelerating shift to a low-carbon economy deepen external uncertainty, is precisely the time to create new growth opportunities through bold innovation in our business portfolio."

Posco Group Chairman Jang In-hwa made the remarks Wednesday at the CEO Investor Day held at the Conrad Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, pledging to restructure the group's business portfolio around resources — spanning steel, lithium and energy — and to contribute to national industrial security and supply chain resilience.

At the event, Posco Group unveiled its vision to become a "national champion core resource supplier" by building a "Triple Core" framework encompassing industrial resources (steel), strategic resources (lithium, cathode and anode materials, rare earths and others), and energy resources (LNG and renewable energy).

Speaking directly to investors, Jang laid out concrete performance targets, including combined sales of 187 trillion won ($120 billion) and operating profit of 13.1 trillion won by 2035, saying the group would "expand its business domain from steel and materials into resources, and lead the way in strengthening national industrial security and supply chains."

Strategic resources, led by lithium, drew the most attention. Investors focused closely on the segment as the lithium business has begun delivering tangible results and demonstrating its growth potential.

Posco Group said it aims to complete an annual lithium production system of 173,000 tons by 2033, establishing itself among the world's top five lithium producers, and to achieve operating profit of more than 1.8 trillion won from its lithium business by 2035.

On the brine lithium front, Posco Argentina turned to an operating profit in March, and the group recently secured approval under Argentina's RIGI large-scale investment incentive regime, which is expected to further solidify its earnings structure. Posco Group said it will accelerate investment in the third and fourth phases of its brine lithium operations, targeting completion of a 100,000-ton annual brine lithium production system by 2033.

In hard-rock lithium, the group secured a joint venture agreement with Australia's Mineral Resources Ltd. to expand its refining operations and locked in more than 187,000 tons of lithium concentrate annually. The arrangement is also expected to generate stable annual earnings of around 200 billion won.

Posco Group also plans to develop rare earths — a critical mineral for the electric vehicle and robotics industries — and rare and specialty gases, essential materials for advanced industries, as strategic resources and new growth engines, positioning itself at the forefront of stabilizing the national supply chain for future industries.

For steel, its industrial resource pillar, Posco Group plans to ramp up overseas growth investment to overcome stagnating domestic demand. The group aims to expand production capacity to 10 million tons by 2031 in high-potential markets including India, the United States and Indonesia, and intends to reinvest the resulting earnings into domestic low-carbon transition efforts, creating a virtuous cycle.

The group will also concentrate on securing both profitability and sustainability in its energy resource business, which has emerged as a new core segment. For LNG, it will push ahead with value-chain expansion strategies and proactively scale up trading operations in response to the recent rise in global cargo volumes. In renewable energy, the group plans to move into domestic offshore wind and overseas solar markets in earnest, contributing to national energy security.

In new business areas, the group will pursue the commercialization of physical AI for process industries, drawing on its accumulated experience in equipment automation and intelligent systems from steelmaking, as well as its vast repository of on-site operational data.

To sharpen execution of this portfolio transformation, Posco Group plans to invest 16.7 trillion won in future growth over the next three years through 2028.

Following Wednesday's event in Seoul, the group will hold additional CEO Investor Days in Singapore on July 6 and in Hong Kong on July 8, continuing its efforts to strengthen investor communication and enhance corporate value.

Meanwhile, holding company Posco Holdings plans to optimize its stake in listed subsidiaries to around 50 percent, aiming to eliminate the persistent holding company discount that has weighed on its valuation.

The capital freed up through those stake adjustments will be concentrated in strategic resource investment projects operated directly by Posco Holdings to drive the group's future growth, while 10 percent of the proceeds will be used for share buybacks and cancellations to maximize shareholder value.

Posco Holdings posted consolidated sales of 17.88 trillion won in the first quarter of this year, up 2.5 percent from a year earlier, driven by a recovery in its lithium and secondary battery materials businesses. Operating profit rose 24.3 percent to 710 billion won, while net profit rose 57.9 percent to 543 billion won over the same period.