Samsung SDI plans to invest 200 billion won (1.146 billion yuan) to expand the capacity of its lithium battery plant in Malaysia, according to South Korean media reports. The factory mainly manufactures cylindrical lithium batteries. According to people familiar with the matter, the new production line is expected to produce more than 1 million batteries a month, with an annual capacity of up to 2GWh if all of them are 21700-size batteries.
It is reported that this is the first time that Samsung has expanded the production of cylindrical lithium batteries since Samsung invested in the Tianjin plant in 2019, which means that Samsung SDI is very optimistic about the prospect of electric vehicles. The company is also considering increasing battery capacity at its Malaysian plant to annual 4GWh in the future.
Battery Network noted that Samsung SDI, which used to expand production at a relatively conservative speed, has invested in production expansion since the beginning of this year.
June 9, foreign media said that Samsung SDI President Quan Young-hyun revealed that the company is considering entering the U. S. power battery market. This is the first time that Samsung SDI has publicly revealed its intention to enter the US market.
According to industry insiders, Samsung SDI may set up a joint venture with a global carmaker to take advantage of the opportunity to enter the US market. Including Stellantis Group and BMW, which are already using Samsung SDI batteries. Samsung SDI plans to work out a detailed investment plan by the end of 2021 at the latest.
On May 25th, Samsung SDI announced that it would develop large all-solid-state battery units and prototype all-solid-state battery units by 2025 and begin mass production in 2027. Samsung SDI also said that in terms of Toyota, Samsung is second only to Toyota in the number of international patents related to Toyota's all-solid-state battery technology.
In February, South Korean media reported that Samsung SDI announced plans to invest 942 billion won (US $849 million) in its Hungarian battery plant in 2021, which will be used to expand the capacity of the region's first battery plant (from 30GWh to 40GWh) and to build its second battery plant in Hungary.
In addition, on April 29th, Samsung SDI reported that its battery business sales in the first quarter were 2.39 trillion won, up 32.9% from a year earlier, mainly due to strong demand in the power battery market in the first quarter.
Samsung SDI said that the power battery business could not break even due to the impact of the quality recall in the fourth quarter of 2020, and the power battery business is expected to achieve the break-even target in 2021, and the battery business revenue will continue to maintain double-digit growth and profitability will continue to improve.
In terms of market competitiveness, according to the global power battery installation released by South Korean industry research agency SNE Research, the global power battery installation reached 48GWH in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 128.6% over the same period last year. The top five companies in the first quarter of global power battery installation are Ningde Times, LG New Energy, Panasonic, BYD and Samsung SDI.
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