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[라이센스뉴스 김지훈 기자] SK Innovation announced through its earnings announcement on the 29th that the battery business achieved trillions of sales for the first time in history amid the stagnation of its main businesses due to the impact of Corona 19.
SK Innovation’s battery business sales last year stood at 1.61 trillion won, more than doubled from the previous year’s 690.3 billion won.
In the fourth quarter of 2020, SK Innovation recorded sales of KRW 7.67 trillion and operating loss of KRW 244.3 billion. The fourth quarter sales of the battery business also reached the highest quarterly sales of KRW 479.2 billion. Annual sales amounted to 34,164.5 billion won and operating loss of 2.568.8 billion won.
SK Innovation’s battery business is expected to continue to grow in sales this year as overseas plants with an additional 20GWh production scale are fully operational this year in Yancheng and Huizhou, China, with a total production capacity of 40GWh, which is about four times higher than at the end of 2019.
◇ 4Q 2020 results
By each business in the fourth quarter of last year ▲Oil business has sales of KRW 4,769.2 billion and operating loss of KRW 1925 billion ▲Chemicals business has sales of KRW 1.69 trillion and operating loss of KRW 46.2 billion ▲Lubricants business has sales of KRW 652 billion and operating profit of KRW 135.3 billion ▲Oil development The business achieved sales of 14 billion won and operating profit of 1.6 billion won, respectively.
▲The battery business recorded sales of KRW 477.2 billion, an increase of 2.2 times compared to the same period of the previous year (KRW 225 billion), but despite continuous improvement in profitability, it recorded an operating loss of KRW 108.9 billion due to the initial cost of overseas factories. ▲ Despite the increase in sales of ion battery separators (LiBS), operating profit fell by KRW 4.6 billion from the previous quarter to KRW 25.3 billion due to a drop in the exchange rate and the initial fixed cost burden from the operation of new Chinese facilities.
◇ Annual performance in 2020
Each business last year’s year ▲Oil business sales 22,637.9 billion won, operating loss 2,222.8 billion won ▲Chemical business sales 7,541 billion won, operating loss 121.2 billion won ▲Lubricating oil business sales 2,371.3 billion won, operating profit 262.2 billion won ▲ The oil development business achieved sales of KRW 59.3 billion and operating loss of KRW 4.8 billion ▲ The battery business achieved sales of KRW 1.61 trillion and an operating loss of KRW 426.5 billion ▲ The materials business achieved operating profits of KRW 125.9 billion.
◇ Battery business and material business
The battery business, which is the leading player in eco-friendly growth of SK Innovation, has reached a full-fledged growth trajectory with annual sales of 1.61 trillion won, an increase of 919.9 billion won compared to the previous year’s annual sales (690.3 billion won).
With the stable operation of the Hungarian Plant 1, which started mass production in 2020, and the Changzhou Plant in China, sales volume increased and sales increased significantly. Early stabilization of overseas plants has led to an increase in sales and improving profitability.
The Yancheng and Huizhou plants in China are scheduled to begin mass production from 1Q2021, and earnings are expected to improve further. ▲ The second factory in Hungary with a scale of 9.8 GWh in the first quarter of 2022 and the third factory in the first quarter of 2024 ▲ The first factory in the state of Georgia with a scale of 9.8 GWh in the first quarter of 2022 and the second factory with a scale of 11.7 GWh It plans to mass-produce from the first quarter of 2023.
SK Innovation aims to have a global battery production capacity of 85GWh by 2023 and 125GWh or more by 2025, and plans to continue aggressive investments according to the rapid growth of electric vehicles by deciding to additionally expand more than 25GWh from 100GWh, which was the target of 2025. to be.
In the material business, we are continuing to expand overseas facilities for separators, and currently, a 530 million m2 plant in Cheongju and Jeungpyeong in North Chungcheong Province and a 340 million m2 plant in China have been in operation since the end of last year and have an annual production capacity of 870 million m2. . If overseas factories such as China and Poland are put into operation sequentially, the production capacity is expected to reach 1.37 billion m2 by the end of this year and 1.87 billion m2 by 2023.
Meanwhile, in 2020, SK Innovation decided not to pay dividends to improve its financial structure in a situation where earnings deterioration due to Corona 19 and investment in new growth businesses were expanded, but shareholder-oriented management is an important value of SK Innovation. He said that it is establishing a plan to return to shareholders in the mid- to long-term, taking into account the corporate value through the business.
SK Innovation President Kim Joon said, “The company’s new growth business is realizing tangible results even in the worst business environment that has never been experienced due to Corona 19. This year, the first year of the full-scale implementation of the Financial Story, In addition to new businesses, we will promote total and fundamental innovation centered on green.”
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