[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Three South Korean battery companies will spend about 25 trillion won on facility investment alone this year. As it has accumulated more than 1,000 trillion won in order backlogs, it is necessary to have a fast battery production capacity and will not miss the timing of recovering demand for electric vehicles.

According to the battery industry on the 13th, LG Energy Solution, the No. 1 domestic industry, will invest 10.9 trillion won in facility investment this year. Following last year (10.9 trillion won), the company plans to invest more than 10 trillion won for two consecutive years to expand its influence in the North American battery market and provide differentiated customer value such as stable local production and timely supply to customers.

LG Energy Solution focuses on preparing for expansion of production base in North America and responds quickly to recovery of demand for electric vehicles. The second plant of General Motors (GM) Joint Venture (JV) in Tennessee, USA in the first quarter of this year, and Hyundai Motor JV are set to start mass production in Indonesia in the first half of this year. The GM JV 3, Stallantis, Honda and North American Hyundai Motor JV are scheduled after 2025, with the expansion of the single plant in Michigan and Arizona cylindrical and ESS plants will also be built.

SK ON announced a facility investment of 7.5 trillion won this year. Most of Capex will be focused on investment in North America. It will be used for the 'Blue Oval SK' Tennessee plant, a JV with Ford Motors in the United States, and the Georgia JV with Hyundai Motor.

Although Samsung SDI does not officially disclose Capex (facility investment), stock markets expect it to make facility investments of about 5 to 6.4 trillion won, the highest level ever since its listing this year. Samsung SDI is planning to build JVs 1 and 2 plants with Stellatis and New Carlyle plants with GM, which is expected to make aggressive investments starting this year.

LG Energy Solutions decided to establish a second joint venture of about 30kwh with Hyundai Motor Group in Georgia in May last year, and increased its order balance to more than 500 trillion won by signing an 20GWh supply contract with Toyota in October of the same year. SK ON achieved more than 400 trillion won in accumulated balance as of the end of last year.

 

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