SK to build new electric battery plant in China

SK On, the battery arm of South Korea's SK Innovation, plans to invest 3 trillion won ($2.53 billion) to build a new electric vehicle battery production base in China, and has signed an agreement with Yancheng in Jiangsu province, Yonhap News Agency reported on Thursday.

The new factory is expected to begin construction next year and produce more than 10 gigawatt hours of batteries a year when it puts into operation, according to Yonhap.

It will be the fourth battery factory and the first wholly owned plant for SK in China. Its other three factories are located in Changzhou and Yancheng in Jiangsu province and Huizhou in Guangdong province.

The company had said in September it planned to build a new battery factory in China with an initial investment of 1.2 trillion won.

SK On said last week that it has an order backlog of about 1.6 terawatt hours of batteries worth some 220 trillion won, which could power about 23 million electric vehicles.

SK Innovation is the world's sixth largest battery cell manufacturer and has around 40 GWh of production capacity with plants in South Korea, China, the United States and Hungary.

By 2023, the capacity is to increase to 85 GWh, and by 2025 to 200 GWh. By 2030, SK Innovation wants to be able to produce 500 GWh.

The company supplies its electric car batteries to Ford Motor, Volkswagen and Hyundai Motor.