After around two years of negative net results, South-Korean battery manufacturer SK On group CEO Seok-hee Lee has outlined plans for significant cost-cutting measures as part of an ’emergency management’ strategy. SK On – the fourth largest EV battery supplier in the world – is suffering from weak demand on the European and US EV markets.
The financial reports of the parent group SK Innovation since 2017 indicate that there has been a steady growth in revenue after the covid dip in 2020, when the lithium-ion battery business corresponded to 6% of the turnover for SK Innovation.
SK On was spun off in 2021, and the battery business result has been poor since then. This development is accelerating due to the dip in EV demand. Analysts think the battery business in SK On might be re-joined to the gas and other energy businesses in the parent company.
According to the Financial Times, analysts said SK was in a worse position than South Korean rivals LG and Samsung SDI. The company had offered its customers generous terms on pricing that were now coming back to haunt it.
The CEO of SK On said the group will remain committed to further innovating the company’s top tier battery technology. SK On has a broad range of partners, from mass producers Hyundai, Ford and Volkswagen, to exclusive brands such as Ferrari.
SK on has been working on several continents to secure a supply of strategic raw materials, such as lithium in Australia and North America. The company has also developed new technologies. One example is the Z-folding method of stacking cathodes and anodes between the separators in a zigzag shape to minimize cell stress and reduce risk of internal ignition. Recently, it invested in solid-state battery technology.
