SK on is investing in a large-scale expansion of its Seosan plant, a battery outpost in South Korea.
It is a step toward completing the construction of core infrastructure that will serve as a foundation for the development of the domestic electric vehicle battery industry.
On August 16, SK on announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Seosan City, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea, and Hongseong-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea. Under the agreement, SK on will expand its third plant on an area of approximately 44,125 square meters in the Seosan Auto Valley. The investment will total 1.5 trillion won, making it SK on's largest investment in Korea.
Plant 3 is expected to complete the expansion by 2025 and then gradually reach a production capacity of up to 14 GWh by 2028 through equipment replacement and process improvement work. This will bring SK on's total capacity in Korea to approximately 20 GWh, enough to power 280,000 electric vehicles annually.
This is a major investment plan that will increase SK on's total production capacity by more than 100 times, 11 years after the company first started production at the Seosan plant.
SK on opened its first plant in 2012 with a 200 MWh (0.2 GWh) production line, and has since expanded production to about 5 GWh in 2018 through a series of phased expansions.
Following the existing plants 1 and 2, which have played a major role in creating jobs in the Seosan region, the expansion of plant 3 will create additional new jobs.
The expansion is also expected to increase production for domestic battery equipment and raw material companies. A significant portion of the investment in Factory 3 will be utilized to purchase battery equipment, and the scale of raw material purchases will gradually increase as production volume expands.
In just five years since 2018, when SK on began its global expansion, the company has established a global mass production system totaling 89 GWh in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
SK on plans to implement a smart factory and optimize manufacturing operations by introducing the latest equipment at the Seosan Plant 3.
It is expected to increase production speed by more than 30% compared to the existing lines and further improve process accuracy. At the same time as the expansion, the company plans to improve productivity at its existing plants based on process improvement activities such as line renovation.
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