Kim Cheol-jung, CEO of SK IE Technology (SKIET) recently visited the company's Lithium-ion Battery Separator (LiBS) production base in Poland from April 10 to 13.
This visit is part of the company's strategy to maintain its business competitiveness and respond to the growing demand for electric vehicle batteries. Prior to this visit, CEO Kim also visited SKIET's other bases in Jeungpyeong (Korea) and Changzou (China).
During his visit, CEO Kim inspected SKIET's first separator plant in Poland, which was completed in 2021. This plant is the first of its kind in Europe and can produce about 340 million square meters of separator annually. CEO Kim executed MBWA by inspecting the production lines and communicating with local employees. He also visited Plants 2, 3, and 4, which are under expansion, to check the construction progress.
Plant 2 is scheduled to start pilot operation in the second half of this year and is expected to begin commercial operations by the end of the year. The third and fourth plants are targeted to be completed in 2024, and when Plant 4 starts operating, the company will be able to produce up to 1.54 billion square meters of separators, making it the largest separator production facility in Europe.
“Even though the plants in Poland aim to target the European market, they could also play a preemptive role in responding to the demand in the North American market,” said CEO Kim during his visit to the production base in Poland. “We need to have thorough preparation to secure competitive edges, including the establishment of a ‘smart factory’ with automation technology.”
SKIET's production plants in Poland are equipped with LiBS packaging and automated product transport equipment and are planned to be fully automated from the production process to the packaging and transporting stage in the future.
The company is also actively pushing ahead with the application of AI technology to predict and detect issues in the production process and identify product defects, which is expected to significantly reduce production costs.
In addition to inspecting SKIET's production facilities, CEO Kim also met with local government officials to discuss cooperation opportunities. He met with the mayor of Dąbrowa Górnicza, Marcin Bazylak, and other local officials to talk about how SKIET can become a leading separator producer in Europe through continued cooperation with local partners. He also joined a meeting with Janusz Michałek, President & Chairman of the Board of the Katowice Special Economic Zone (KSSE), to exchange ideas regarding multiple support plans.
“The core competitiveness of SKIET, which will determine its future growth, lies in technology, cost, global supply chains, and ESG management, and the company must provide integrated value to its customers through these factors,” CEO Kim said. “We will keep making efforts to help the Polish production base preemptively secure core competitive advantages and become the core global hub of SKIET.”
