Korean electronics giant Samsung is to invest US$2.4 billion in order to expand battery manufacturing in Tianjin, northern China, according to a report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
The Tianjin municipal government has reported that the investment will be used to expand the power battery lines for automotive batteries, and to establish a multi-layer ceramics capacitors (MLCC) factory in the city.
Tianjin is already a well-established manufacturing base for Samsung, with 10 affiliated companies currently in the municipality, pumping out products reportedly worth a combined total of around CNY84bn ($12.2bn) annually.
Samsung SDI is thought to be investing $800 million on the battery project alone, which will be realised on a 100,000 square metre site. The battery factory will produce systems that “will mainly be used on energy storage systems, electric cars and electric tools, according to the company”.
The MLCC factory will be built by Samsung Electro-Mechanics, an electric component manufacturing subsidiary of the Samsung Group. It is expected that construction work on the facility will be completed in 2019, with operations to start in 2020.
Last year, two Chinese shareholders put a total of 30% of shares in Samsung SDI’s joint venture battery company— Samsung SDI (Tianjin) Battery Co— on the market, according to China’s Tianjin Property Rights Exchange.
The company was set up in China in 2015 and is a manufacturer of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries.
