SKC breaks ground on Europe’s largest copper foil plant in Poland

SKC Ltd., the chemical materials unit of South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate, said on Friday it has begun construction of a 900 billion won ($692 million) new copper foil plant, Europe’s largest, in Poland.

SKC and its wholly owned copper foil producer SK Nexilis Co. on Thursday held a groundbreaking ceremony at its construction site in the southeastern Polish city of Stalowa Wola.

The electric vehicle battery material plant, located in the city’s industrial zone, the Stalowa Wola E-Mobility Complex, will have an annual production capacity of 50,000 tons when it goes into mass production in the second half of 2024, the company said.

The factory, close to major global lithium-ion battery manufacturers in Poland, is SK’s second overseas production facility after one in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

With competition heating up in the global race for EVs and other eco-friendly cars, SK and other Korean companies are moving forward with their plans to expand facilities for raw materials used in EV batteries.

Global demand for copper foil, used to make anode materials in lithium-ion batteries, is forecast to more than triple to 1.59 million tons by 2025 from 450,000 tons in 2021, according to Korea’s HI Investment & Securities.

SK announced the 900 billion won investment plan last November in a move to expand its presence in the European market.

Copper foils produced at the new plant will likely be supplied to Korean battery makers. LG Energy Solution operates a factory in Poland, while SK Innovation Co’s battery unit SK On Co., and Samsung SDI Co. have plants in neighboring Hungary.

LIKELY TO EXPAND FACILITY IN POLAND

SKC said on Friday it has secured enough land in Poland’s Stalowa Wola E-Mobility Complex to expand its annual capacity to 150,000 tons, although the company has no specific expansion plans yet.

The groundbreaking ceremony was also attended by top Polish government officials, including Deputy Prime Minister and State Assets Minister Jacek Sasin and Stalowa Wola Mayor Lucjusz Nadberezny. Polish President Andrzej Duda delivered a congratulatory speech online.

SK Nexilis aims to have an annual production capacity of 250,000 tons globally by 2025.

In Korea, the company is running six factories with a combined annual capacity of 50,000 tons.

In July of last year, the company broke ground on its Malaysian plant with an annual capacity of 50,000 tons.

It also plans to build a factory with a 50,000 ton a year capacity in the US by 2025 and is currently looking for a site.

SK Nexilis is already the world’s largest copper foil maker with a global market share of 22% as of 2021, according to research firm SNE Research.

Earlier this month, SKC said it is selling its plastic film business to private equity firm Hahn & Co. for 1.6 trillion won to raise funds to expand its battery materials business.

Write to Jeong-Min Nam at peux@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.