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2018-03-29 00:00:00
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SK Innovation, South Korea last Thursday commenced the construction of a HUF 97.5billion plant to produce lithium batteries for electric vehicles in Komarom (NW Hungary). The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó confirmed the award of a grant valued at HHUF 8.17 bln from the government. This grant will be used to fund the project.
In its first phase, the project is expected to create 410 jobs, according to the statement made by Péter Szijjártó which was published on the official government website kirmany.hu. This investment is in line with the fact that the automotive industry in Hungary is one of the main economic platforms in Hungary which employs about 176,000 people and it is responsible for over one-third of the country’s industrial production.
On the government site kormany.hu, it was noted that SK Innovation is the third largest company in South Korea. Its main offices are located at the industrial park in komarom, and SK Innovation currently operates three major battery manufacturing plants in Hungary. In addition, China’s BYD produces electric buses in the city’s industrial park while Audi has also established a factory close by to produce electric motors for cars.
Yoon Te Seon, the SK Innovation chief officer heading the battery division in a statement mentioned that mass production at the 430,000 sqm plant is billed to commence in 2020 and the yearly target capacity of batteries produced will reach 7.5 GWh which will be sufficient for over 250,000 cars. He also added that production could be increased if the demand for the batteries increased.
The report published on kormany.hu also pointed out that with the entrance of SK Innovations in this industry, there are now three South Korean companies producing batteries for electric cars in Central and Eastern Europe. LG Chem plans to open a new plant in Poland before the end of 2018. In addition, Samsung SDI has recently opened its new plant in göd, north of Budapest, in an investment evaluated to be worth HUF 100 billion, employing 600 workers.
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