Australian battery metal players key to South Korea's EV ambition

 Australia will play a big role in South Korea's ambition to lead the electric vehicle batteries market and diversify from China for its battery metals needs, a top South Korean executive said on Wednesday.

Ben Bosung Kim, the managing director for steel giant POSCO (005490.KS) in Australia, said the company has already invested around A$5 billion ($3.4 billion) in the country, which covers traditional raw material such as iron ore and coal, and more recently lithium, nickel, graphite and other minerals needed to manufacture electric car batteries.

"Australia and Korea are always complementary and interdependent in terms of Australia's mining and Korea's manufacturing," Ben told Reuters at the sidelines of the Australia-Korea Business Council (AKBC) conference in Sydney.

"It was like that in the past in terms of steelmaking, and it will be for the battery materials in the future," he said.

The Asian country controls a third of the $46 billion market for electric vehicle batteries but it relies heavily on China which is a key supplier to Korea for electric vehicles.