In Q3 2020, SK Innovation Expanded EV Battery Sales By 155%

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Design in Design Innovation | 0 Comments

SK Innovation, the South Korean conglomerate mostly focused on its Refining, Petrochem and Lubricants divisions – but also a manufacturer of lithium-ion EV batteries and battery materials, announced its third-quarter financial results.

The company improved its position compared to the previous quarter, but the situation is still difficult compared to a year ago.

The category named “Other”, which includes electric vehicle batteries and battery materials is only a small part of the entire company, but it’s expanding (from 6.2% of revenues in Q2 to 7.0% in Q3). So far it’s also not profitable yet.

The EV battery business is probably the fastest-growing part of SK Innovation. Revenues in Q3 increased by 155% year-over-year to 486.0 billion KRW ($428.6 million).

EV batteries are still not yet profitable for SK Innovation, but thanks to the growing scale, operating losses are decreasing – to 98.9 billion KRW ($87.2 million) in Q3.

With all the new plants listed on the slide below, we guess that it’s just a matter of time to make profits:

An important thing is that the SK Innovation is also producing EV battery materials and this part is profitable for quite some time: operating profits decreased in Q3 though to 29.9 billion KRW ($26.4 million).

According to the latest news, SK Innovation will significantly expand its battery material production in the coming years, both for own needs and for other manufacturers.