SK Innovation to build third Hungarian battery plant

The company is betting big on being a force within the European battery ecosystem. The company is planning to invest USD 2.29 billion by 2028 to set up a new 30 GWh battery manufacturing plant, the company discloses in a press release. It was during a board of directors meeting held on January 28, where SK Innovation CEO Kim Jun, resolved to make new investments. Thus, it will invest USD 1.148 billion (about KRW 1.27 trillion) in SK Battery Hungary (SKBH) to build a new factory in Europe. The new manufacturing plant is planned to be constructed in Iváncsa in central Hungary, with a production capacity of 30 GWh per year. The company’s first and second European plants are located in Komárom, Hungary, and the expected third plant will be the largest, both in terms of output and in investment scale. In order to achieve this plan, SK Innovation secured an area of about 700,000 square metre in Iváncsa. For this third European plant – which the company states will be a long-term project – a total of USD 2.29 billion (about KRW 2.6 trillion) is expected to be spent as construction cost. This is half of the anticipated total investments. SK Innovation says that it plans to finance the project externally according to its construction schedule. Construction start is currently expected to commence in the third quarter of this year and last until 2028. Kim Jun, CEO of SK Innovation says in the press release that business conditions might not be favorable currently because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but SK Innovation is making a bold investment decision for its future to grow the green mobility business. “The investment decision made this time will lead the battery business of SK Innovation to greatly contribute to the value chains and ecosystem and to become a leading global company in the global EV industry,” the CEO says. According to an update from HIPA, the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency, the decision from the South Korean company to expand with a third battery manufacturing plant in the country will result in the creation of 2’500 new jobs. The company’s broke ground on its first European battery manufacturing plant in Komárom in March 2018, less that a year later the news hit that the company was expanding with yet another plant in Komárom. Construction for the second plant has now been completed and production is about to start. Once the investment in the third plant is completed, the production capacity of the existing 7.5 GWh and 9.5 GWh plants will be supplemented by the new factory's annual production of 30 GWh.