Securing Money for Further Investment
Samsung SDI’s Hungarian battery plant will receive 89.6 million euros in support funds from the European Union (EU). The funds will be given for the Korean battery maker’s completion of a local battery plant which revved up the local economy and locally created decent jobs. Analysts say that Samsung SDI has secured financial resources for its additional investment in the Hungary plant.
On Feb. 28, the European Commission announced that it approved a local government’s request for subsidy for Samsung SDI’s Hungary plant. The first subsidy for Hungary Plant 1 completed in the second half of 2019 came in about three years. Experts expect that subsidies will also be paid for Samsung SDI’s second plant in Hungary, which began operation in earnest in early 2023. Samsung SDI did not disclose the second plant’s production capacity, but industry insiders estimate its production capacity at 50GWh per year. The production volume can power 600,000 high-performance electric vehicles a year.
Samsung SDI is supplying prismatic batteries from its Hungarian plant to European electric vehicles such as BMW, Volkswagen and Stellantis. Their orders are on the uptick these days.
The support funds are expanding Samsung SDI’s investment funds. The European Commission also announced in a press release that the money was investment support for Samsung SDI’s plant expansion. Some analysts forecast that Samsung SDI will establish new factories in North America in the future. The analysis was made based on the fact that Samsung SDI signed a contract with POSCO Chemical in January to buy cathode materials worth 40 trillion won, the largest ever from the latter.
In March of last year, SK On received 209 million euros in support funds for its third plant in Hungary (30GWh per year) from the EU.