“Targeting the rising demand for data centers in North America, mass production will begin in the second quarter of this year (April–June), and the company will push ahead with building a local production base.”

Jeong Yong-uk, Head of the Secondary Battery Business Division at Dongwon Systems, stated this in an interview with the Dong-A Ilbo on the 11th at “InterBattery 2026,” the largest battery exhibition in Korea, held at COEX in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The product Jeong plans to put into mass production is Primer Coated Aluminum Foil (PCAF), a core battery material used as coated cathode foil. Dongwon Systems is currently the only company in Korea equipped with PCAF technology.

PCAF refers to the current collector within the cathode material, one of the four key battery materials, which serves as the pathway for electricity. It functions as a body that collects and delivers electric charge. It is mainly manufactured by drawing highly conductive aluminum into a thin foil. Active materials that generate electricity are spread onto this foil to complete the battery.

Unlike conventional cathode foil, PCAF is called coated cathode foil because functional materials are applied to upgrade its performance. It is regarded as an essential material particularly for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are known for their strong cost-performance balance. This is to compensate for LFP’s inherent disadvantage—lower conductivity compared with nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) ternary batteries—leading to a faster decline in lifespan and performance. Until now, however, the Korean battery industry has focused on ternary systems, while Chinese companies have mainly specialized in LFP, so domestic demand for PCAF technology has been limited.

Recently, the global market for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers has been expanding rapidly, and the situation has changed. This is because most energy storage systems (ESS) installed by big tech companies to stabilize power supply at AI data centers are based on LFP batteries. LG Energy Solution and the other two major Korean battery manufacturers are all actively targeting the LFP-based ESS market.

Although domestic battery producers are aggressively entering the LFP business, the localization of supply chains for related materials and components remains insufficient. Jeong said, “To qualify for support under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the share of Chinese products in the battery supply chain must be reduced,” adding, “In particular, AI data centers are driving increased demand for non-Chinese products from a security perspective, which is enhancing the value of Korean-made materials.”

Jeong stressed that Dongwon’s long-accumulated know-how in food packaging and coating technologies has created synergies in the development of battery materials. For packaging various food products such as canned tuna, Yangban seaweed, and retort foods, technologies are used to spread aluminum thinly and uniformly and then coat packaging film on top. This technology has been applied to battery materials. Jeong said, “As the LFP ESS market has taken off, this has been the key for Dongwon to rapidly develop and commercialize PCAF,” adding, “Product verification with major customers is now in its final stage, and mass production will begin soon.”

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