South Korea’s Samsung SDI has confirmed that it attained the green light from Samsung Group to build its second plant in Göd of Hungary for producing EV batteries, according to industry sources on Nov. 20.
The production capacity of the new facility is expected to reach about a monthly 12 million cells by 2030, which would be about three times that of the first plant. Altogether, the company is seeking to raise the capacity to up to 18 million, with 6 million coming from the first plant.
These moves are perceived as reflecting the SDI’s strategy to target supplying top European carmakers such as BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo to increase its impact in the European markets.
Construction on the new facility is to begin as soon as the first half of next year in order to begin operations by 2021. The first plant was originally churning out CRT and PDPs before it switched to batteries in 2016. So the second plant is the firm’s first official plant overseas just for EV batteries.
Over a four-phase investment period, during which Samsung plans to invest a total of KRW 1.2 trillion. The first phase investment will be wrapped up by 2021, with aim to secure a monthly 5 million cells to eventually grow to 18 million.
The new production lines will adopt stacking technology, unlike the past when the winding method was preferred. Stacking requires both notching and stacking equipment. Some are expected to come from South Korea’s Philoptics, while logistics equipment may be supplied by SFA, which has established a corporation in Hungary for this purpose.
In 2018, Samsung SDI invested KRW 2 trillion into battery CAPEX – about 200 billion won more from 2017. Given the amount of investment into the Hungary plant, industry watchers expect the Samsung affiliate to maintain about 2 trillion won of investment a year into related facilities.
The Elec is South Korea’s No.1 tech news platform.
