South Korean company SK Innovation has announced plans to build a new production plant for lithium-ion battery separators in Poland. The company will invest €335m ($375m) to construct four production units for lithium-ion battery separators and three for ceramic coated separators. The plant, located in Województwo Śląskie, will have an estimated annual capacity of 340 million square meters of lithium-ion battery separators and 130 million square meters of ceramic coated separators. SK Innovation aims to become a leader in the separator market, which is a core material for electric vehicle batteries.
WOJEWÓDZTWO ŚLĄSKIE, Poland and SEOUL, South Korea -- SK Innovation will establish a global production base to become a leader in the separator market, the core material for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
On 27th of March, SK Innovation announced that it will build a new production plant for Lithium-ion Battery Separator (LiBS) and Ceramic Coated Separator (CCS) in Województwo Śląskie, Poland.
SK Innovation, a leading energy and chemical company in Korea, is engaged in various fields from oil refining, chemicals, lubricants, petroleum development to EV batteries and battery separators. SK Innovation became the world's third company to succeed in developing Wet-Type LiBS in 2004.
SK Innovation plans to invest EUR 335 million to build four LiBS production units and three CCS production units in the 270,000 sqm site located in Województwo Śląskie. The plant will break ground in the third quarter of this year and begin mass production in the third quarter of 2021. The annual capacity of the plant is estimated to be 340 million square meters of LiBS and 130 million square meters of CCS.
SK Innovation recently announced a series of plans to build plants in other countries including China and Poland. Currently it produces 360 million square meters of LiBS per year in Jeungpyeong, Chungcheongbuk-do, Korea, and the completion of overseas plants in China and Poland will increase SK Innovations' production capacity to 1.2 billion square meters per year.
SK Innovation recently established 'SK hi-tech battery materials Poland Sp. z o.o.', a wholly owned limited company.
It is expected that SK Innovation will be able to rapidly provide separator products to major customers in the European market when the plant in Poland is completed. In addition, SK Innovation believes that it will make tangible results in Europe where global EV original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and EV battery providers are competing fiercely with each other.
SOURCE SK Innovation