Anticipated Automation
SK IE Technology (SKIET) announced on April 13 that President and CEO Kim Chul-jung visited Poland from Oct. 10-13 (local time) to inspect SKIET’s separator production plant in Poland and met with local government officials to discuss cooperation.
Kim made his first stop at SKIET Poland’s Plant 1. The plant was completed in 2021 and is the first separator plant in Europe with an annual production capacity of approximately 340 million square meters. He conducted on-site management by inspecting the plant’s production line and having a meeting with Korean employees working there.
Kim also visited Plants 2, 3, and 4 where expansion work was underway, to check the construction status. Plant 2 is scheduled to begin stabilization and test operation in the second half of this year, with plans to start regular commercial operation as early as the end of this year. Plants 3 and 4 are currently undergoing site stabilization and steel framing. These processes are expected to come to an end in 2024. Once Plant 4 goes operational, the four Polish plants will be able to produce 1.54 billion square meters of separators, the largest in Europe. That is enough separators for batteries that can power approximately 2.05 million electric vehicles.
Currently, the SKIET Polish factory is equipped with LiBS packaging and transportation automation equipment. The company plans to automate the entire process from production to packaging and transportation in the future. It is also utilizing AI technology to predict problems in the production process and detect defective products. This is expected to dramatically cut down on manufacturing costs.