L&F Co., a former LCD backlight unit maker, has long been a stranger even to locals in Daegu, a provincial city 165 km away from Seoul. 
 
Many people still don’t know where the company, now South Korea’s leading battery materials maker, is located. To investors and global electric vehicle makers, however, L&F is as important as air to mankind. 
 
One of the industry’s few battery materials makers that can mass produce nickel, cobalt, manganese and aluminum (NCMA) cathodes, a key EV battery material, L&F counts Tesla Inc. as well as Korea’s top three battery makers LG Energy Solution Ltd., SK On Co. and Samsung SDI Co. among its major clients. 
 
L&F is also capable of producing the NCM cathode with high-nickel content. 
 
“Global battery makers may not know Seoul, but they know Daegu,” said an industry executive wittingly. “They are flocking to Daegu to secure a stable supply of cathode materials.” 
 
With a firm footing in the cathode segment, the Korean cathode supplier to Tesla is now setting its sights on another key battery component, the anode. 
 
“Anodes are also produced via a similar process as cathodes. We plan to enter the anode market too,” L&F Chief Executive Choi Su-an told The Korea Economic Daily in a recent interview. 
 
Lithium-ion cells are composed of four main components – cathodes, anodes, separators and electrolytes. 
 
Cathode-active materials comprise around 40% of the cost of EV batteries while anodes account for about 15%. 
 
L&F has no plans to enter the separator and electrolyte markets for now, the CEO said.