SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who visited three European countries, Spain, Denmark, and Portugal, as a presidential envoy, continued his global management activities by meeting with key businessmen from each country one after another.
According to SK on March 6, Chairman Choi met with government officials, including the prime ministers of the three countries, as a presidential envoy from February 28. While appealing for support for the 2030 Busan World Expo, he served as an advance guard in expanding economic cooperation by holding a series of meetings with energy-related companies in each country as SK Group chairman.
In particular, considering that this business trip was a visit to a powerhouse in renewable energy, Chairman Chey's business meeting also focused on meetings with major companies in the energy field of each country, such as Denmark's Vestas and Portugal's Galp.
On March 2 (local time), Chairman Chey met Henrik Andersen, CEO of Vestas, Denmark, the world's No. 1 wind turbine manufacturer. Chairman Chey proposed strengthening partnerships in various fields, such as the development and sale of green hydrogen through water electrolysis technology as well as offshore wind power, while the two companies advance into Southeast Asia such as Vietnam with Korea as a hub.
CEO Henrik Anderson said, “Korea is the best country as a business hub in the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region.” We also hope to expand cooperation in new fields such as
On the same day, Chairman Choi met with Jakob Poulsen, CEO of CIP (Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners), the world's largest green energy investment management company, and met with offshore wind power, energy storage system (ESS), hydrogen, and small module nuclear power plants (SMR). They discussed ways to cooperate in the overall environment-friendly energy sector.
Chairman Chey mentioned to the CIP side, "We need in-depth discussions on stable hydrogen production and export plans beyond offshore wind power." In response, CIP said, "We are very willing to expand cooperation with SK in various fields."
In addition, CIP introduced the Artificial Island project, a complex new and renewable energy facility being promoted in the North Sea region with the Danish government, and suggested cooperation with SK and Korea for this project.
Since CIP Korea was established in Korea in 2018, CIP has been developing multi-gigawatt scale fixed and floating offshore wind power generation projects in Jeonnam and Ulsan. After obtaining permission for a 900MW offshore wind power generation project in the Shinan-gun area, construction of the 99MW "Jeonnam 1" project is scheduled to begin soon.
Chairman Chey had a meeting with Filipe Silva, CEO of Galp, a Portuguese energy company, on March 3 (local time). Chairman Chey said, “Galf, Portugal’s largest oil and gas company, is similar to SK Group in that it is shifting its business to the new and renewable energy field.” Let's find out," he suggested.
CEO Philippe Silva also agreed that Galfsa has a business platform and portfolio transformation strategy similar to SK. Galfsa has recently made a rapid transition to decarbonisation, emerging as a key player across the supply chain in the renewable energy sector across the Iberian Peninsula, Brazil, Mozambique and North Africa.
The two companies discussed ways to continue expanding the scope of cooperation with SK in the future, including offshore wind power, lithium refining, bio fuel development, and EV charging facilities.
During his visit to Spain on March 1(local time), Chairman Chey also met with Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism Reyes Maroto to discuss ways to promote economic cooperation between the two countries. He introduced the case of ILBOC (Iberian Lube Base Oil Company), a high-end lubricant production joint venture that produced successful business results as a result of long-term trust-building between Repsol, Spain's largest energy company, and SK Group. It was proposed to expand manpower exchange.
An SK official said, "The entrepreneur took on the role of a special envoy, and with the support for hosting the expo, we were able to draw up detailed discussions on economic cooperation with Europe."
