LG Chem and Japan's TORAY will establish a joint venture in Europe for separators, a core material for batteries. TORAY is one of the world's three largest wet separator manufacturers. LG Chem is expanding their material business portfolio with the goal of becoming the world's No. 1 comprehensive battery materials company. LG Chem announced on the 27th that they had signed a contract to establish a separator joint venture, 'LG TORAY Hungary Battery Separator,' in the presence of LG Chem Vice Chairman Hakcheol Shin and TORAY CEO Nikkaku Akihiro. <Reference page 1 of our news, July 16th>
The stake in the joint venture is 50-50. LG Chem plans to acquire an additional 20% stake from TORAY in the future to secure management rights. The two companies will invest a total of more than 1 trillion KRW, including the initial investment from LG Chem. The factory will be established on the site of the existing TORAY factory located in Komárom, Hungary. The total area is 420,000 square meters. It is large enough to fit 60 soccer fields.
Hungary has excellent transportation convenience and is close to major LG Chem customers, including global automakers. It has favorable geographical requirements to strengthen the responsiveness of large European customers.
The joint venture plans to secure an annual production capacity of more than 800 million square meters by 2028. The production line will be expanded in the first half of next year. The separator will be supplied to European battery companies such as LG Energy Solution’s Poland plant in Wrocław, Poland. LG Chem and TORAY quickly entered the European market through their own production of fabric, a core material for separator which is one of the three global markets. LG Chem will be able to further strengthen their position as a global separator business by adding TORAY fabric business capabilities to their own coating manufacturing technology.
Last July, LG Chem took over the separator coating business of LG Electronics in order to become a comprehensive battery material company. They have operating coating production lines in Cheongju-si, Chungbuk and in China and Europe. They are gaining manufacturing competitiveness based on their faster manufacturing speed and technological capabilities compared to their competitors. LG Chem jointly possesses safety-enhanced separator technology that significantly improves safety and performance by thinly coating the surface of the separator with a ceramic material with TORAY. Vice Chairman Hakcheol Shin said, “This is an innovative change that creates synergy by combining the world’s best technologies such as LG Chem’s coating technology and TORAY’s fabric capabilities. We will leap forward as the world's No. 1 comprehensive battery material company.”
By Staff Reporter Jiwoong Kim (jw0316@etnews.com)