SK On Temporarily Halts Expansion Construction at Seosan Plant

SK On has temporarily halted the expansion construction of its domestic battery production base at the Seosan plant in Chungnam.

SK On stopped the expansion construction of the Seosan battery plant starting from the 6th. The date for resuming construction has not been determined.

SK On stated that the temporary suspension of construction is due to the rapid depletion of costs at each construction stage caused by increased construction expenses, and not due to a decline in battery demand.

Earlier in August, SK On announced that it would expand its third plant on a 44,152㎡ (approximately 13,348 pyeong) site within the Seosan Auto Valley Industrial Complex, investing 1.5 trillion KRW. This is SK On's first domestic investment in five years since 2018.

SK On plans to complete the expansion of the third plant with a production capacity of up to 14GWh by 2025, and then sequentially increase capacity by upgrading equipment and improving processes at the existing first and second plants by 2028.

Once the third plant expansion is completed, the total production capacity of the Seosan plant is expected to increase to 20GWh annually, enough to equip approximately 280,000 electric vehicles.

SK On Seosan Battery Plant Overview
Photo by SK On

Regarding this suspension, speculation has arisen within and outside the industry that it might be a move to slow down in response to the recent global electric vehicle market slowdown.

SK On drew a clear line, stating that the temporary halt in construction was only due to the investment cost execution process and is unrelated to recent market conditions.

An SK On official said, "Construction costs require board approval at each stage," adding, "Therefore, construction is temporarily suspended until the approval of the next stage's costs."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.