EnerTech International will set up a battery pack plant in Russia. It is the first time for a Korean company to build a battery plant in Russia. It will supply batteries to Russian state-owned automakers.
EnerTech International has decided to build a battery plant from the beginning of this year and has been reviewing production plans with Russian customers. It is known that the CEO of EnerTech, Deok-geun Oh, has recently completed negotiations with a Russian state-owned automaker to build a battery plant. The plant is planned to be built next year.
EnerTech will complete the battery plant by 2024 and produce battery packs to supply to Russian automakers. It manufactures everything from battery cells to modules and packs.
The factory's production scale is 4 gigawatt-hours (GWh). This is an increase from the original production target of 3.3GWh. It can produce about 100,000 large-capacity (60Ah) batteries. EnerTech plans to expand the scale to 16GWh by 2030.
CEO Oh said, "We have decided to supply battery packs to Russian state-owned vehicles. We decided to expand production as the battery demand increased.” According to a market research institute, the size of the Russian battery market is expected to grow fourfold from this year to KRW 2.3 trillion in 2030.
EnerTech is also discussing supply and demand for key battery raw materials with a Russian-based company. Nordic, a Russian battery material manufacturer, produces nickel and cobalt, which are key materials for battery production.
EnerTech plans to respond to battery demand by establishing a supply chain in Russia. CEO Oh said, “We are in the process of discussing the supply of additional batteries with Russian automakers. We will use our Russian battery production base to target the European electric vehicle battery market.”
By Staff Reporter Ji-woong Kim jw0316@etnews.com)