SKC, Toyota Tsusho tie up for N.America battery materials

SKC Ltd., a South Korean chemicals maker, has joined hands with the trading unit of Japanese top automaker Toyota Group for the electric vehicle battery material business in North America, the world’s second-largest EV market, to maximize benefits from US policy that favors products made in the country or its trading partners.

SKC said on Monday its wholly owned subsidiary SK Nexilis Co. and Toyota Tsusho Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding on a joint production venture in North America. SK Nexilis produces copper foil, core materials for the anode, the negative end of a lithium-ion battery.

SK Nexilis and Toyota Tsusho plan to manufacture copper foil in the region where the volume of the battery materials production is less than 1,000 tons a year with a goal of securing long-term supply deals with battery makers.

“Based on the agreement, we aim to make a successful investment in North America and establish a global production system covering Asia, Europe and North America, eventually,” said an official of SKC, a unit of South Korea’s No. 2 conglomerate SK Group, in a statement.

“The cooperation is expected to significantly improve the competitiveness of the two companies in the global EV market,” added the official, referring to SK Nexilis and Toyota Tsusho.

The move came as the US government has yet to classify copper foil as a mineral or a component, which will determine its eligibility for tax credits of up to $7,500 to customers per EV. If Washington defines copper foil as a mineral, it will be eligible for the subsidies if it is produced in the US or its free trading partners, which include South Korea, with some requirements met. But if the authority categorizes it as a component, it must be produced in North America for the benefits.

TO PRODUCE 250,000 TONS FROM 2025

SK Nexilis is in talks with Toyota Tsusho to build a joint factory, which is scheduled to produce up to 250,000 tons of copper foil a year from 2025, industry sources in Seoul said.

The plant is expected to supply copper foil to a US EV battery factory of Toyota Tsusho and Toyota Motor Corp. under construction, which is scheduled to start operations in 2025 with an annual capacity of up to 40 gigawatt hours.

“Since it was selected as the first vendor of the Toyota factory, it is likely to supply billions of dollars of copper foil for years,” said an industry source in Seoul.

SK Nexlis and Toyota Tsusho also aim to secure contracts from other battery makers, the sources said. SK Group’s battery maker SK On Co. is expanding production facilities in the US.

SK Nexilis plans to produce high-quality wider copper foil wider than 1 meter at new plants including the US factory to compete with Chinese rivals offering narrower products at cheaper prices.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.