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Tag: LG Chem

  • SK unit to supply batteries to VW

    SK unit to supply batteries to VW

    SK Innovation is supplying electric car batteries to Volkswagen Group along with existing suppliers LG Chem and Samsung SDI, the Korean battery maker said Wednesday. The Volkswagen Group brands plan to launch 50 new fully electric models by 2025, and the group said it needs more battery supplies in a statement Tuesday. SK Innovation was the last of the four battery suppliers selected by the carmaker.

    SK Innovation will start supplying batteries to Volkswagen cars in Europe from 2019. LG Chem and Samsung SDI are also strategic partners in the auto company’s European operations.

    From 2022, SK Innovation will also supply batteries for the North American market.

    The group’s electric car production in China will source batteries from Chinese partner Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) from 2019.

    SK Group’s battery arm is planning on covering Volkswagen orders by setting up new facilities in Europe and the United States. Currently, the company is mulling three locations in the United States, it said, without giving details about the production capacity or the amount of investment. As for its newly-planned European plant, the company said it is considering multiple locations including Hungary, where it is already building a plant.

    When all planned factories are in place, SK Innovation’s battery production capacity will increase to 20 gigawatt-hours per year by 2022, the company said. Despite being a latecomer to the market, SK Innovation has been rapidly expanding its battery business. Daimler and Kia Motors are also using SK batteries.

    Its share of this year’s global battery market, excluding China, was 2.2 percent based on accumulated battery sales through the end of September, according to data from market tracker SNE Research, growing from 1.4 percent the same period last year.

    LG Chem is still the largest local player, with a 17.5 percent market share, followed by Samsung SDI, with an 8.2 percent market share.

    “With SK Innovation, LG Chem, Samsung and CATL, we have found strong partners for the long-term supply of cells for our electric vehicles,” said Stefan Sommer, a Volkswagen board member responsible for components and procurement.

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  • LG Chem signs deal to distribute cancer drug

    LG Chem signs deal to distribute cancer drug

    LG Chem has partnered with U.S. bio company Cue Biopharma to develop immunotherapy drugs to treat cancer, the local company announced Monday. Immunotherapy drugs help patients fight diseases like cancer by enhancing their immune system. It is a relatively unusual form of cancer therapy that differs from the conventional approach of using medication to directly fight the cancer cells inside the human body.

    Based in Boston, Cue Biopharma is a Nasdaq-listed company that specializes in developing biologics for immunotherapy. The companies will co-develop and distribute three immunotherapy drugs which were previously developed by Cue Biopharma: its lead product CUE-101, currently in the preclinical stage, and two other cancer antigens that are at an earlier stage of development.

    Cue Biopharma’s core technology is the Immuno-STAT platform that inserts information about a specific cancer cell into a T cell, a white blood cell that will then find and attack the disease. Before the platform existed, T cells had to be pulled out of the human body to have the information injected into them, but Cue Biopharma’s technology allows the process to happen internally.

    Under the agreement, LG Chem will obtain exclusive distribution rights for the three treatments in Asia once they are fully developed. Cue Biopharma will take charge of distribution in other regions.

    LG will offer a maximum of $400 million to the U.S. bio company including milestone payments given at each stage of clinical testing in the development process. Once the treatments are commercialized, Cue Biopharma will additionally receive license fees proportional to sales in the Asia region while LG, in return, will receive royalties from the Asia sales.

    This is the first time in its three decades of history in the bio pharmaceuticals industry that LG Chem has partnered with another company to work on a new drug.

    “We are very pleased to enter this strategic collaboration with Cue Biopharma; it is more than a licensing deal, it is a partnership with a shared vision and great strategic fit,” said Dr. Son Jee-woong, president of LG Chem Life Sciences.

    For Cue Biopharma, the advantage of working with LG is its experience in developing and manufacturing bio pharmaceuticals in the past as well as its business know-how in the Asia region.

    Under the partnership, LG will also conduct development in mass production and quality control methods for the immunotherapy drugs.

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  • LG Chem picks first CEO from outside group

    LG Chem picks first CEO from outside group

    LG Chem said Friday it nominated Shin Hak-cheol, vice chair and executive vice president of 3M, as its new head. It is the first time the chemical company hired a chief executive from outside the company since its foundation in 1947. Current LG Chem CEO Park Jin-su climbed the ladder during his 42-year career at the company.

    LG Chem said it has been looking for a person who can systemize global business operations as overseas production and marketing of lithium-ion batteries has increased along with demand for electric cars.

    “Shin has gained global perspective and experience in operating a global materials and components business,” LG Chem said in statement. “He is the right person capable of responding to a rapidly changing business environment and bringing change in corporate culture and structure.”

    Shin started at 3M Korea in 1984 as a technical supervisor and then joined 3M Philippines in 1995 as its managing director. In 2011, he was named executive vice president of 3M International Operations, becoming the first Korean to lead 3M’s overseas businesses, LG Chem said.

    His most recent role at 3M was leading global teams, including the research and development, strategy and business development and business transformation teams, as vice chair and executive vice president at the 3M headquarters in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

    Shin will begin commute to work and be officially inaugurated as the chief executive during the shareholders meeting in March.

    Park will retire as Shin is inaugurated, but the exact date has not been announced yet. The company grew into a 28 trillion won ($24.8 billion) company under Park. In 2011, it posted around 22.6 trillion won in sales.

    Industry analysts say this may be the beginning of a major transformation at LG under the leadership of 40-year-old Chairman Koo Kwang-mo.

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  • LG Chem to build China facility

    LG Chem to build China facility

    LG Chem said Tuesday that it will invest 2.1 trillion won ($1.8 billion) by 2023 to build electric vehicle batteries in China in the latest move to meet growing demand for batteries for zero-emissions cars. Korea’s top chemical company said it has broken ground on a three-story plant on the 198,300-square-meter (49 acre) site in Nanjing in southeastern China.

    The plant is set to roll out electric vehicle batteries that can power more than 500,000 electric vehicles. The first phase of production is set to begin late next year.

    An electric vehicle equipped with LG Chem batteries can travel about 320 kilometers (198 miles) on a single charge, according to LG Chem.

    LG Chem Vice Chairman and CEO Park Jin-soo said the second plant in China will allow the company to better meet rapidly growing global demand.

    LG Chem has another electric vehicle battery plant in Nanjing. It also operates electric vehicle battery plants in Korea, the United States and Poland.

    The electric vehicle battery market has been on the rise as automakers around the world race to go electric due to tightened regulations on greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists say are to blame for global warming.

    Currently, LG Chem is a key supplier of batteries to U.S. auto giant General Motors, Volvo and Renault, as well as Korea’s largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor, and its smaller affiliate, Kia Motors.

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