Iljin Materials Secures 1.15 Trillion KRW Investment... "Expanding Copper Foil Production Capacity to 200,000 Tons"

Copper foil produced by Iljin Materials.
[Photo by Iljin Materials]

[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] Iljin Materials will invest 1.15 trillion KRW to expand copper foil factories in Malaysia, Europe, and the United States by 2025. If the company's plan proceeds as scheduled, the current annual production capacity of 60,000 tons will increase to 200,000 tons.

On the 30th, Iljin Materials announced that its subsidiaries IME (Iljin Materials Europe) and IMG (Iljin Materials Global) raised 600 billion KRW and 400 billion KRW respectively in common stock from Stick Investment, and Iljin Materials successfully issued convertible bonds worth 150 billion KRW.

Iljin Materials plans to use the 1.15 trillion KRW raised this time to expand production facilities by increasing overseas factories in Europe, the United States, and Malaysia. Currently, Iljin Materials has secured a total production capacity of 40,000 tons, including 20,000 tons domestically and 20,000 tons at its Malaysian subsidiary. When the expansion of the Malaysian factory is completed by the end of this year, the production capacity will increase to 60,000 tons, and with additional investments, the production capacity will expand to over 200,000 tons by 2025.

Copper foil is a thin copper film with a thickness one-fifteenth that of a human hair. It is a key material for lithium-ion battery anodes, with about 40 kg of copper foil used in a single electric vehicle.

In 2019, Iljin Materials also attracted 300 billion KRW in investment from Stick Investment to expand its factory in Malaysia. In June, Iljin Materials established IMG to manage its overseas subsidiaries and incorporated the Malaysian production subsidiary IMM (Iljin Materials Malaysia) as a subsidiary of IMG. Subsequently, IMG established the European subsidiary IME this month. The company is also considering establishing the U.S. subsidiary IMA in light of future factory expansion plans.

Yang Jeomsik, CEO of Iljin Materials, said, "This investment attraction has accelerated the expansion of overseas factories," adding, "We plan to produce ultra-thin electric foil with a thickness of less than 2 μm (microns, one-millionth of a meter) used in semiconductor packages, special electric foil for 5th generation (5G) applications, and I2S, an electric foil product for next-generation secondary batteries, to advance our business structure."