$700M credit line secured from IDB Invest
Funding to cover working capital for Plants 1 and 2
Tax incentives, lower financing costs expected
Posco Argentina posts first quarterly profit in Q2
![Kim Seung-jun (right), head of finance and investor relations at Posco Holdings, and James Scriven, president of IDB Invest, pose for a photo at Posco Center in Seoul on Friday after signing a credit facility agreement for Posco Argentina. [Posco Holdings]](https://www.europesays.com/korea/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/news-p.v1.20260828.4362d675bbc04805be4acad66b29ef5a_P1.jpg)
Kim Seung-jun (right), head of finance and investor relations at Posco Holdings, and James Scriven, president of IDB Invest, pose for a photo at Posco Center in Seoul on Friday after signing a credit facility agreement for Posco Argentina. [Posco Holdings]
Posco Holdings has secured a credit line of around 1 trillion won ($724 million) for its brine lithium operations in Argentina, adding international financial backing to a project that recently won a major investment incentive from the Argentine government.
The company announced Friday that Posco Argentina, its Argentine brine lithium production subsidiary, had received approval for a $700 million short-term credit facility from IDB Invest, the private-sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank Group.
The approval was granted on Aug. 4. Rather than drawing the full amount at once, the structure allows Posco Argentina to tap the $700 million limit as working capital needs arise. The company plans to use the funds for operations at its first lithium plant and at a second plant scheduled for completion in the second half of this year.
The IDB Group provides financing for resource development projects in Latin America to help build critical mineral supply chains in the region. According to Posco Holdings, IDB Invest cited Posco Argentina’s compliance with global environmental, social and governance standards and its contributions to the local economy as key factors in its decision.
The arrangement is also expected to reduce financing costs. Under the intergovernmental agreements governing IDB’s establishment, preferential treatment may apply to some interest payments and taxes arising from financial transactions. Posco Holdings believes this will help lower lithium production costs and improve project profitability over the long term.
The financing comes on the heels of Argentina’s approval of Posco Holdings under the country’s Large Investment Incentive Regime, known by its Spanish acronym RIGI. The company secured that approval around the time of the South Korea-Argentina summit on July 31. RIGI offers qualifying large-scale investment projects tax and tariff benefits, foreign exchange concessions and long-term regulatory stability.
Posco Argentina’s financial performance has also been improving. Backed by stabilized operations and equipment upgrades at its first brine lithium plant, the subsidiary posted its first quarterly profit in the second quarter — a step up from its first monthly profit, recorded in March.
Posco Holdings is expanding its brine lithium production capacity in Argentina in stages. Completion of the second plant in the second half of this year will add to the existing production base, and the company intends to focus on ramping up output and stabilizing operations using the newly secured funds and tax benefits.
Posco Holdings is developing lithium into one of the group’s three core resource businesses alongside steel and energy. The company is pursuing what it calls a “triple core” strategy built around steel as an industrial resource, strategic resources including lithium, cathode and anode materials and rare earths, and energy resources such as LNG and renewable energy.
kwater@heraldcorp.com
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