SK Innovation invests €335 million in Polish expansion

SK Innovation plans to invest EUR 335 million to build four LiBS production units and three CCS production units in the 270'000 square metre 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, the company states in a press release. 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. 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. Worth mentioning is also that the company recently announced that it is building a USD 1.68 billion lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in the Georgia, USA. SK Innovation is also currently building two separate battery manufacturing facilities in Hungary for the production of lithium-ion batteries for fully electric, plug-in and hybrid vehicles.