Page 168 - CW E-Magazine (5-9-2023)

News from Abroad

THIRD FACILITY PLANNED

SK On unveils $1.1-bn plan to expand battery manu-

facturing in Korea

South Korean electric mobility
firm, SK On, will make a KRW 1.5-tril-
lion ($1.1-bn) investment in its domes-
tic battery production base in Seosan,
South Korea. The investment is the
company’s largest domestic invest-
ment.

The company signed an MOU with
South Chungcheong Province and Seo-
san City to build its third facility in Seo-
san. In accordance with the agreement,
SK On will be expanding its third plant
on a site within the Seosan Auto Valley
complex, located in Seosan. With this After establishing a 200-MWh (0.2- ated its global expansion endeavours in
plant, SK On aims to quadruple its GWh) mass production line at Seosan earnest, it has successfully established
battery cell capacity in South Korea Plant 1 in 2012, SK On had increased a global mass production system with
from the current 5-GWh to about 20-GWh. its production to about 5-GWh in 2018 a collective capacity of 89-GWh across
through gradual expansion. A signifi- the US, Europe, and Asia, in five years.
The third plant is scheduled to come cant proportion of the investment in SK On plans to implement a smart fac-
online in 2025 and will be expanded to the third plant will be allocated to the tory by introducing the latest facilities to
an annual capacity of 14-GWh by 2028. procurement of battery equipment pur- the Seosan Plant 3 and optimise manu-
South Chungcheong Province and Seo- chasing. The scale of raw material pro- facturing operations. The aim is to
san City will be responsible for provid- curement is poised to gradually escalate increase production speed by more than
ing administrative and financial support alongside the expansion of production 30% compared to the existing lines and
such as authorization and permission. volume. Since 2018, when SK On initi- further enhance process accuracy.

FUNDING SUPPORT
Japan’s Zeon and GM invest in cathode materials

firm, Mitra Chem

Japanese chemicals firm, Zeon LFP batteries, which it seeks to achieve Specifically, Zeon will also make full
Corporation, through its venture capi- using its proprietary machine learning use of the expertise that it has cultiva-
tal arm, Zeon Ventures, has invested in platform to develop cathode materials ted in designing binders and in evaluat-
Mitra Future Technologies (Mitra for these batteries. It is also developing ing and analysing lithium-ion batteries,
Chem), a US start-up developing cathode high-volume, low-cost cathode mate- towards proposing an environmentally
materials for lithium iron phosphate rials for next-generation batteries that friendly, low-cost electrode process
(LFP) batteries. have even higher energy density than suitable for Mitra Chem’s cathode
LFP batteries. materials and to assist in driving the
Mitra Chem – an AI-enabled battery company’s further growth.
materials innovator – is one of the select Zeon will work with Mitra Chem by
few companies in the US aiming for the developing an electrode process suit- Zeon also recently invested in Ver-
large-scale commercial production of able for Mitra Chem’s battery materials. dagy, a US start-up that has developed

168 Chemical Weekly September 5, 2023

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