SK Innovation secures supplies of battery separators for lithium-ion batteries
SK Innovation announced a new battery separator plant to be built in Poland, in the southern part of the country (Województwo Śląskie), as part of a plan to establish a global production base and become a leader in the separator market. The project will be led by a new subsidiary SK hi-tech battery materials Poland Sp. z o.o.
Localization of the 270,000 sqm site is a stone’s throw from the LG Chem plant (also in Poland), as well as not far from SK Innovation battery plant in Hungary, rumored plant in Germany and other battery factories in this part of Europe (Samsung SDI in Hungary, announced CATL plant in Germany).
The investment of €335 million ($376 million) is set to begin in Q3 2019 and the factory will be completed in Q3 2021, reaching an annual output of:
- 340 million square meters of LiBS
- 130 million square meters of CCS (ceramic coating)
Together with 360 million square meters of LiBS per year plant in Jeungpyeong, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea and 500 million square meters of LiBS plant in China, the total output of LiBS to be 1.2 billion square meters per year.
More from the press release:
“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.”