SK Innovation’s’battery business’ enters the growth trajectory… Recorded the first’trillion’ sales in history

▲ SK innovation battery cell. ⒸSK Innovation

The battery business, which is the leading player of SK Innovation’s eco-friendly growth, is on a full-scale growth trajectory as sales more than doubled from the previous year.

SK Innovation announced on the 29th that it has achieved trillions of sales for the first time in history, while the stagnation of its main businesses continued due to the impact of Corona 19 through an announcement of its interim results. SK Innovation’s battery business sales last year stood at 1.61 trillion won, more than doubled from 69.3 billion won last year.

SK Innovation said, “The sales volume increased thanks to the stable operation of the first plant in Hungary and the plant in Changzhou, China, which started mass production last year, and sales have increased significantly.” “With early stabilization of overseas plants, sales volume is increasing and profitability is improving.” He explained.

In the fourth quarter of the battery business, sales reached 4792 billion won, the highest on a quarterly basis. This is a 112% increase from the previous year’s sales of 225 billion won. However, despite continuous improvement in profitability, the company recorded an operating loss of 108.9 billion won due to the initial cost of overseas plants.

SK Innovation’s battery business is expected to continue to grow in sales by increasing its total production capacity to 40GWh, four times compared to the end of 2019, when additional 20GWh overseas production plants are fully operational in Yecheon and Huizhou, China this year.

In addition, in Hungary, the △9.8 GWh plant in the first quarter of 2022 △ The third plant in the first quarter of 2024, in the United States, the Georgia plant with 9.8 GWh in the first quarter of 2022 △ 11.7 GWh plant in the second quarter. It plans to mass-produce from the first quarter of 2023.

In the material business, operating profit fell by KRW 4.6 billion from the previous quarter to KRW 25.3 billion, despite the increase in sales of lithium-ion battery separators (LiBS), due to the falling exchange rate and the initial fixed cost burden from the operation of new facilities in China.

On the other hand, SK Innovation’s total sales for the fourth quarter announced on this day were 7,6776 billion won, down 34.0% from the previous year (11,6473 billion won) and 7.58% from the previous quarter (8,307.9 billion won).

The operating loss was 243.4 billion won, which turned to the black compared to the previous year (+873 billion won), and the deficit widened compared to the previous quarter (-536 billion won).

By business category ▲Oil business sales 4,7692 billion won, operating profit 1925 billion won ▲Chemical business sales 1.619.4 billion won, operating loss 46.2 billion won ▲Lubricating oil business sales 652 billion won, operating profit 125.3 billion won ▲Oil development business sales 14 billion won, sales Each achieved a profit of 1.6 billion won.

Annual sales amounted to 34.16 trillion won, down 30.7% from the previous year’s 49,306.9 billion won. Operating profit fell sharply from 1,113.6 billion won to negative (-) 2.5687 billion won.

By business category ▲Oil business sales of 22,6379 billion won, operating loss of 2,222.8 billion won ▲chemical business sales of 7,541 billion won, operating loss of 121.2 billion won ▲Lubrication business sales of 2,371.3 billion won, operating profit of 2622 billion won ▲Oil development business sales It was KRW 59.3 billion and an operating loss of KRW 4.8 billion.

▲ SK innovation battery production capacity. @SK Innovation