At present, SKI has become a battery supplier for international car companies such as Daimler, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Kia, Ferrari, etc.
SKI is increasing its presence in the Chinese power battery market.
According to foreign media reports, SKI plans to invest US $ 1.05 billion (about 7.38 billion yuan) to build a new power battery plant in Yancheng, Jiangsu. Currently, SKI has established a battery factory in Changzhou with an annual output of 7.5GWh.
It is understood that the battery capacity of the Yancheng plant is mainly supplied to Dongfeng Yueda Kia Motors in Yancheng, and the OEM is further expanding its new energy vehicle capacity. After the battery factory is completed, SKI and Yueda Kia Motors will have a closer cooperation relationship.
As South Korea's third-largest power battery company, SKI has continued to overweight the new energy business in recent years, with the intention of catching up with the battery giants such as LG Chem and Samsung SDI.
Since 2018, SKI has successively expanded battery capacity or jointly built battery factories in Hungary, China, the United States and Germany. It is expected that investment will continue to increase in the future.
With continuous investment, SKI's power battery business has made great progress. In 2018, SKI defeated LG Chemical and won a huge battery order from Volkswagen. It plans to invest 1.7 billion US dollars to build a battery factory in the United States to supply Volkswagen.
At present, SKI has become a battery supplier for Daimler, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Kia, Ferrari and other international auto companies, and is in contact with other OEMs to discuss cooperation. Under this situation, SKI strengthened its layout in the Chinese market, intending to seize this huge power battery market.
It is worth noting that, although SKI's power business has made positive progress, it is currently experiencing a crisis.
In April this year, LG Chemical filed a lawsuit against the SKI with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and the US court, accusing it of hiring its employees to steal core lithium battery related technologies, involving the theft of trade secrets, violating future economic advantages and making claims.
Immediately afterwards, SKI launched a counterattack and filed a separate damages lawsuit against LG Chem in a Korean court, claiming that the latter's lawsuit harmed its EV battery business, and asked LG Chem to apologize and compensate SKI.
At the same time, SKI and its US subsidiary SK Battery America filed a 337 investigation application with the United States ITC, claiming that LG Chemical exported to the United States and sold such products in the United States infringed its patent rights (U.S. registered patent number 10121994), requesting the ITC issues limited exclusion and prohibition orders.
The internal conflict between LG Chem and SKI is being upgraded, which may affect the competitive advantage of Korean battery companies in the international market. However, in this dispute, SKI is at a disadvantage.
On November 14, LG Chemical stated that it had asked the US International Trade Commission (USITC) to make a default judgment on a trade secret lawsuit against its local rival SKI.
LG Chemical claims that SKI has been quietly destroying key evidence of the theft of the company's trade secrets since the lawsuit was filed. Failure to comply with USITC's Digital Forensics Order constitutes a contempt for the court and makes it impossible to take fair legal proceedings. Therefore, USITC is required to make a default judgment on SKI or announce that SKI has stolen its confidential data.
A few days ago, the U.S. Office of Investigation of Improper Imports (OUII) recommended that the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) and the court accept LG Chem's request for a default judgment on SKI violations of trade secrets.
OUII said: "It is reasonable to assume that SKI breached the evidence and did not comply with ITC's evidence order."
This means that if the US court makes a default judgment, SKI will be prohibited from exporting lithium-ion cells, battery modules, packaging and components to the United States.
Once SKI loses its lawsuit, it will have a fatal blow to its North American power battery business, and Volkswagen companies may also be implicated, which will severely hinder the battery supply of MEB platform models and cause great losses.