SK subsidary to supply EV battery materials to Vietnam's Vingroup

SK IE Technology Co. (SKIET) secured battery separator orders from Vietnam’s No. 1 conglomerate Vingroup, in the latter's push to expand into Southeast Asia and North America. 

SK Inc.’s electronics material subsidiary announced Friday that Pham Thuy Linh, president of Vingroup’s battery-making arm Vin Energy Solution (VinES), and her entourage visited the SKIET headquarters and its plant in North Chungcheong Province late last month. 

Ahead of the visit, the two companies signed a preliminary agreement for SKIET to supply battery separators to be installed in EV batteries manufactured by VinES. 

Battery separators are essential for safety reasons, as they prevent batteries from exploding during the charging process.

Vingroup established VinFast in 2017, the country’s first automobile maker, which debuted its first electric vehicle dubbed the VF e34. 

VinFast is spending $2 billion to build a production plant in the US state of North Carolina.

The North Carolina plant is scheduled to be operational by 2024, which will boost the Vietnamese company’s annual EV production capacity to about 150,000 units a year.

“We will look into opportunities to diversify our business portfolio by promoting SKIET's exclusive technology prowess and safety,” the company’s CEO Roh Jae-seok said.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.