Samsung SDI plans to spend up to 2 trillion won (11.46 billion yuan) on battery business this year, according to South Korean media TheElec. The money will be used to expand factories in Tianjin, China, Goed, Hungary and Seremban, Malaysia. However, Samsung is also planning to expand into the United States, when it will invest additional money in the program.
In early June, South Korean media also reported that Samsung SDI planned to invest 200 billion won (1.146 billion yuan) to expand the capacity of its lithium battery plant in Malaysia. 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.
In addition, Samsung SDI recently unveiled its latest battery technology at South Korea's 2021 InterBattery, including a new Gen.5 battery for electric vehicles. Chang Hyuk, executive vice president and head of research at Samsung SDI, confirmed that the company had produced 91% high-nickel NCA cylindrical batteries.
In addition to high-nickel batteries, Samsung SDI is also developing solid-state batteries. 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.
On the performance side, Samsung SDI released an earnings report on April 29th that the company's 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 aims to break even in the power battery business this year, and the battery business revenue will continue to maintain double-digit growth and profitability will continue to improve.
