◀ Anchor ▶
LG and SK, who have been fighting fiercely for two years over whether to infringe battery trade secrets, have reached an agreement.
The agreement was such that the governments of the two countries, Korea and the United States, actively persuaded.
Reporter Yoon-mi Kim summarizes the details.
◀ Report ▶
The dispute after 713 days is completely over.
LG Energy Solutions and SK Innovation, which had been struggling over the size of the settlement money after the US International Trade Commission’s ITC made the final decision in February, reached an agreement this weekend.
In the agreement, the two companies said in an agreement that ITC would end the battery dispute and withdraw all related disputes.
The settlement amount is KRW 2 trillion, and SK pays LG in cash and royalties.
This allows SK to continue producing and exporting batteries in the United States.
The US government is said to have played a major role in this agreement.
SK wants the U.S. government to veto ITC decisions, otherwise it has pressured it to withdraw its battery factory in Georgia.
From the US point of view, following the ITC’s decision not only resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs, but also disrupted the domestic battery supply.
Will the future of the K-battery be smooth now?
The surrounding environment is not easy.
85% of the global battery market is made by six companies in Korea, China, and Japan.
However, while the two companies filed a lawsuit, China’s advance was remarkable, and Volkswagen, the second-largest electric vehicle company, declared that it would rush to develop its own battery without relying on the supply of batteries in Korea.
[이항구/한국자동차연구원 연구위원]
“The electric vehicle industry is entering a full-fledged growth phase, and major governments are making large-scale investments in the battery field, which is a key component, and if there is a division, it could be pushed out of the competition…”
The government also issued a document saying that it welcomed the agreement between the two companies and said, “It is time to prepare for the future against fierce global competition.”
This is Yunmi Kim of MBC News.
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