[Courtesy of SKC]
SKC, a unit of SK Group, plans to make a pre-emptive investment in materials and technologies for next-generation electric vehicle batteries and consider building a global copper foil production base. The parent group has invested heavily in batteries for electric vehicles and related materials.
Last year, SKC acquired KCF Technologies (KCFT), a producer of copper foil for lithium-ion batteries, from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, a U.S-based private equity fund. SKC has selected copper foil, a key material for secondary batteries, as a future growth engine.
"We will make additional investments necessary to improve our financial structure while innovating our second-phase business model focusing on mobility, semiconductors, display and eco-friendly businesses," an SKC official said.
In August last year, SKC separated its chemical business to establish an independent entity. Petrochemical Industries Company K.S.C. of Kuwait acquired a 49 percent stake for $464.6 in the chemical entity. The separated entity named "SK picglobal" aims to produce one million tons of propylene oxide.
SKC received 303.5 billion won ($271 million) this month by completing the sale of a 27.03 percent stake in SKC Kolong PI, a polyimide joint venture with Kolon Industries, to a local private equity fund. SKC
would strengthen the production of transparent PI films and other items for next-generation displays.
Undeterred by a global slowdown caused by a coronavirus pandemic, SKC CEO Lee Wan-jae has vowed to innovate business models. "We have pushed for SKC's deep change with the determination to escape the trapped well despite many difficulties."
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