SK Innovation Separation Materials Business Unit Operates Independently As A New Subsidiary

Seize the market opportunityIn response to the company's move, SK Deep Change2.0's core business is battery and materials.
In the situation of drastic changes in the market, preemption is the core of its business success.On the other hand, the current market prospect of electric vehicles and flexible display, as well as SK innovation's good profitability in the above areas are also important reasons for the company to make this business adjustment.
In 2018, sales of SK's innovative electric vehicle battery business more than doubled to 348.2 billion won in the fourth quarter, compared with 145.7 billion won in the same period in 2017.
The information and electronic materials division posted fourth-quarter operating profit of 52.5 billion won.Set up a battery factory in EuropeSK innovation has decided to invest 945.2bn won to build its second electric car battery plant in Europe.
By then, SK innovation will have four overseas factories, including two in Europe, one in China and one in the United States.SK innovation, the decision to increase investment in the second Hungarian komarom plant, with a total area of about 35,000 ping.
The new plant will start construction this month and be completed in the first half of 2020, aiming to start formal mass production in early 2022. The capacity is expected to be about 9GWh per year.
Including komarom's first plant, SK innovation's battery capacity in Europe will be at least 16.5GWh/ year.
In addition, SK's innovative changzhou plant in China has a capacity of 7.5GWh/ year, the Georgia plant in the United States has a capacity of 9.8GWh/ year, and has a domestic capacity of 4.7GWh/ year.
In this way, SK innovation is getting closer to its medium-term goal of securing 60GWh battery capacity by 2022.For the European battery market, SK innovation says Europe is turning into a market centred on electric cars.
As a result, the company has adopted a pre-emptive business strategy to cope with the rapidly growing European electric vehicle market, strengthen its position in the European car market and compete head-on with European manufacturers.Split material businessAlong with its push into the European battery market, SK innovation announced plans to spin off its materials business and create a new company, SK IE Material, to strengthen the company's expertise in the materials business and ensure its international competitiveness.SK innovation said that at present, the company has two main products in the materials business, namely lithium ion battery diaphragm (LiBS) and flexible display polyimide film (FCW).
LiBS is an important product of SK's innovation. SK's innovative LiBS business has the second largest production capacity in the world, which can form good cooperation benefits with the company's battery business.
The company's FCW product, which debuted in January and is used in flexible display devices, has attracted industry attention.For the separation of the material business, SK innovation said that it will build a unique operating system of SK IE material, strengthen the professionalism of the material business, and further improve the business ability in the material business.
The split of the materials business will be formally decided at a shareholders' meeting in March and will start on April 1.After the completion of the spin-off, SK innovation will increase the number of subsidiaries to six.
The current five are SK energy, SK integrated chemical, SK lubricants, SK incheon petrochemical, SK international trade.