SK Innovation to expand Hungary battery production plant

[NEWS1]

SK Innovation has decided to invest 1.27 trillion won ($1.13 billion) to expand its battery production facility in Hungary, the petrochemical company said Friday.

The move was approved at a board meeting on Thursday, the company said.

The investment will be made through the company's Hungarian subsidiary SK Battery Hungary.

SK Innovation already has one facility running in Hungary with 7.5 gigawatt-hour capacity and is in the process of constructing a second facility with a 9.8 gigawatt-hour capacity, scheduled to operate by the first quarter of 2022.

The third facility will start construction in the third quarter of 2021 with the goal of starting mass production in the first quarter of 2024.

The detailed capacity of the third facility is not decided, the company said.

SK Innovation reported its annual and fourth-quarter earnings on Friday.

It turned to the red in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, reporting 2.16 trillion won in net loss.

Its revenue posted 34.1 trillion won, a 30.7-percent, year-on-year drop.

In the fourth quarter, the petrochemical company reported 24.6 billion won in net loss, a 43.8 percent year-on-year jump. Its revenue came to 7.7 trillion won which is a 34.1-percent, year-on-year drop.

Its battery business in the fourth quarter reported 497.2 billion won growth in revenue, but due to the cost of building factories, its net came to a loss of 108.9 billion won.

SK Innovation plans to have a battery manufacturing capacity at 85 gigawatt-hours by 2023 and 125 gigawatt-hours by 2025.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]