Korea Aerospace announces billion-dollar deal with Boeing

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) said yesterday it has signed a 1.2 trillion won ($1.07 billion) contract with Boeing to supply aircraft parts.

KAI, the nation’s sole aircraft maker, said that it will supply parts for B737, B777 and B787 passenger jets by 2024 to the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer.

It also extended the deal for delivering bodies for the AH-64E Apache helicopter until 2016 in a move worth 130 billion won.

The company, based in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang, also said it inked a memorandum of understanding for a Center of Excellence with Boeing.

KAI claimed that the MOU will bring more than 1 trillion won worth of additional orders from Boeing in the future. Addtionally KAI is expecting its business deal with the U.S. aerospace company to double in value by 2017.

SK Innovation looks to enter car battery market in China

SK Innovation, the nation’s leading energy company, said yesterday it will form a joint venture with Beijing Automotive Group and Beijing Electronics Holding to enter China’s battery market for electric vehicles.

The three sides signed a letter of intent in Beijing yesterday to establish the joint venture, which is expected to launch in late June.

The joint company will first produce battery packs but will carry out all manufacturing processes in the future.

With the joint venture, SK Innovation said that it will expand annual capacity of its Seosan plant in South Chungcheong to 300 megawatt-hours from the current 200 by the end of this year.

If the upgrade is completed, the company’s total annual production capacity will be 400 megawatt-hours, which is enough to supply batteries for 20,000 electric vehicles. The affiliate of SK Group has another company in Daejeon.