SKIET to Increase Investment in Poland Separator Factory... Accelerating Global Market Expansion

Aiming for a Solid No.1 with 30% Market Share in 2025
Production Scale Expanded from 530 Million ㎡ to 1.87 Billion ㎡ in 2023

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] SK Innovation's materials business subsidiary SK IE Technology (SKIET) is accelerating its global market expansion by making additional investments in the separator factory under construction in Silesian Voivodeship, Poland.

SK Innovation's strategy is to complete a new financial story through a deep change that expands its business from refining and petrochemicals to batteries and materials via bold company-wide investments.

SK IE Technology announced on the 29th that it will build an additional separator (LiBS) production line with an annual production capacity of approximately 340 million square meters at its European factory in Poland. The new facility aims to start mass production in the first quarter of 2023. SK IE Technology is already constructing a separator production line with a capacity of 340 million square meters in Poland, targeting mass production in the third quarter of 2021.

The reason SK IE Technology is making such aggressive investments is to secure a global production base in the rapidly growing separator market alongside the rapid growth of the electric vehicle market, thereby increasing market share and becoming the unrivaled number one. The industry estimates the separator market size to be about 4.1 billion square meters this year. It is projected to reach approximately 15.9 billion square meters by 2025, five years from now.

By securing global production bases in China, Poland, and other locations, SK IE Technology plans to increase production capacity faster than market growth while solidifying its position as the world’s number one in the wet separator market with about 30% market share by 2025, based on its competitiveness in manufacturing premium separators.

With this investment, SK IE Technology is expected to have a total production capacity of 1.87 billion square meters by the end of 2023. This is more than three times the current production capacity.

SK IE Technology is leading the global separator market with its outstanding technological capabilities. The 'sequential stretching' technology, developed first in the world by SK IE Technology, allows separators to be stretched uniformly to produce separators with desired physical properties and thickness. Thanks to this technology, the company is recognized as the manufacturer of the thinnest separators with the most uniform quality worldwide. SK IE Technology currently produces separators with a thickness of about 4㎛.

Additionally, the ceramic-coated separator (CCS) technology significantly enhances the durability of separators. This technology applies a fine ceramic layer onto the separator. It minimizes deformation or shrinkage of the separator caused by heat generated in large-capacity batteries, thereby reducing fire risks.

President Noh Jae-seok of SK IE Technology emphasized, "Based on our unrivaled technological competitiveness, we will strengthen business competitiveness and contribute to the activation of the rapidly growing battery industry ecosystem by building global production bases and timely capacity expansions to increase production capacity."