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| SK Nexilis plant in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province / Courtesy of SK Nexilis |
By Nam Hyun-woo
SK Nexilis will build its first overseas plant in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, with the aim of tripling its production capacity of copper foil for electric vehicle (EV) battery cells, the company said Tuesday.
During a board meeting, the SK Group unit decided to build a plant capable of producing 44,000 tons of copper foil for EV battery in a year. The plant will be built in Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park, Sabah state, and its commercial operation will begin in 2023.
When the plant is completed, SK Nexilis' total battery copper foil production capacity will jump to stand at 100,000 tons per year.
The company said this will be running on renewable energy, in a bid to pre-emptively comply with global clients' growing demand for products with a smaller carbon footprint. SK Nexilis' parent company, SKC, and five other SK Group companies are participating in RE100, a global campaign urging companies to run on 100 percent renewable energy.
SK Nexilis said it chose Kota Kinabalu as the location for its first overseas base due to the region's stable and cheap power supply.
The company said Malaysia has the most stable power supply among Southeast Asian countries, as well as having low electricity cost and a high reliance on hydropower. The company added it selected Kota Kinabalu because of its infrastructure such as a port and international airport, and the city has abundant available land for further expansion of the plant.
SK Nexilis added that it is considering making additional investments in Malaysia, Europe and the U.S. to improve its readiness in the fast-growing global EV market. Through further investments, the company plans to expand its production capacity to five times that of the current level by 2025.
"At the Malaysian plant, we will build facilities that can fully materialize our technology of making the thinnest and widest battery copper foil," SK Nexilis CEO Kim Young-tae said. "By building the plant in Malaysia, we will improve cost competitiveness and enhance our commitment to RE100, so we can consolidate our status as the world's No. 1 supplier of battery copper foil."
SK Nexilis has four plants operating and building two more in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province. Those plants' operation rate is 100 percent, the company said. SK Nexilis was formerly KCF Technologies. It was acquired by SK Group's chemicals unit SKC in 2019 at 1.2 trillion won and renamed SK Nexilis in April last year.
As SK Nexilis choose Kota Kinabalu as the home to its Malaysian base, its feud against copper foil rival ILJIN Materials is anticipated to be addressed. The two sides have been locking horns over SK Nexilis' entrance into Malaysia, following local reports that SK Nexilis may build its plant close to ILJIN's Malaysian copper foil plant in Kuching, Sarawak state. Kuching is about 1,038 kilometers southwest of Kota Kinabalu.
