SK Innovation to Invest 1 Tril. Won in LiBS Plants in Poland

SK IE Technology’s LiBS plant under construction in Poland

SK IE Technology, a material business subsidiary of SK Innovation, announced on March 28 that it will invest one trillion won to build additional lithium-ion battery separator (LiBS) plants in Poland.

A separator is a key component directly related to the safety and performance of lithium-ion batteries. It accounts for about 15 percent to 20 percent of battery production cost.

SK IE Technology has decided to invest about 1.13 trillion won to build third and fourth European LiBS plants in Silonsk, Poland. This is the largest single investment ever made by the company.

Each of the two new plants in Poland will have an annual production capacity of 430 million square meters. The company’s first and second plants in Poland have a combined production capacity of 680 million square meters. As a result, SK IE Technology will be able to produce a total of 1.54 billion square meters of LiBSs annually in Poland alone.

Ground will be broken for the third and fourth plants in the third quarter of 2021. The two plants will begin volume production starting from the end of 2023. The first plant will start mass-producing LiBSs in the third quarter of 2021 while the second in the first quarter of 2023.

Demand for the company’s LiBSs is on the uptick as it has been known that no fire has occurred from batteries that use its products. In fact, not a single fire accident occurred from batteries which used LiBSs from SK IE Technology.

The rapid growth of the LiBS market led SK IE Technology to increase investment. Industry experts predict that the global LiBS market will grow from about 4 billion square meters in 2020 to about 16 billion square meters by 2025. Some predict that an LiBS supply shortage may occur staring in 2023.