SK Innovation Targets Battery Production Of Over 500 GWh By 2030
The company would like to become the #1 player in EV battery business globally.
SK Innovation, established in 1962 as Korea’s first oil refining company, announced that it intends to shift its business “from carbon to green” by investing a total of 30 trillion won ($26.5 billion) in 5 years.
One of the key elements of the strategy is the expansion of the EV battery business, as well as the battery separator business, plus an addition of a battery waste recycling business.
"We are planning to invest a total of 30 trillion won until 2025 for green growth, which is more than twice the size of investment over the past 5 years.
As a result, we aim to increase the proportion of our green assets to 70% from the current level of 30%."
Over 1 TWh battery backorder
SK Innovation said that it has more than 1 TWh of battery orders backlogs (1,000 GWh), which is a lot compared to the current manufacturing capacity of 40 GWh per year.
According to the press release, only three companies globally have 1+ TWh of battery orders.
We guess it's CATL and LG Chem.
With such high demand, the company intends to invest heavily to become the largest EV battery manufacturer globally (the previous target was top 3 and it will be achieved by the end of 2022).
That includes #1 in cell production and #1 battery separator production.
An interesting thing is that the order backlog of over 1 TWh should generate 130 trillion won of revenue ($115 billion), which is less than $115/kWh if we understand it correctly.
Over 500 GWh annually by 2030
The expansion targets for EV battery production are extremely ambitious for this decade and should result in a total output of more than 500 GWh annually by 2030.
That's equivalent to 5 million electric cars with a 100 kWh battery, or 10 million with 50 kWh packs.
The battery business is expected to become profitable soon with an EBITDA of 1 trillion won ($885 million) in 2023 and 2.5 trillion won ($2,211 million) in 2025.
Battery separator business to triple
The lithium-ion battery separator (LiBS) business, which is already profitable, is expected to expand quickly as well.
The company intends to triple the production:
2021: 1.4 billion square meters
2023: 2.1 billion square meters
Several years: 4 billion square meters
Other areas of interest are
Energy Storage System (ESS)
flying cars
robots
new businesses based on battery business - including, a BaaS (Battery as a Service) platform for efficient management of the life cycle of batteries.
With such high demand, the company intends to invest heavily to become the largest EV battery manufacturer globally (the previous target was top 3 and it will be achieved by the end of 2022).
That includes #1 in cell production and #1 battery separator production.
Over 500 GWh annually by 2030
*No wonder,
The K-Battery Industry is an essential industry that opens the future," adding, "It is an area that needs to take more and make sure South Korea leads this technology globally in the future”
South Korean President Jae-In MoonGUNBE, KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO, July 10, 2021
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