South Korea's SKC to build 650B won copper foil plant in Malaysia

South Korea's SKC Co. Ltd. plans to invest 650 billion won to build a copper foil plant for electric vehicle batteries in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, BusinessKorea and the New Straits Times reported.

The plant, which will be operated by SKC subsidiary SK Nexilis, will have an annual production capacity of 44,000 tons, BusinessKorea reported Jan. 27. A Jan. 26 report by the New Straits Times said the plant's annual capacity will be 50,000 tonnes.

Construction is expected to start in the first half of 2021, with the start of commercial operation eyed in 2023, the reports said.

The Malaysian plant would be SK Nexilis' first outside South Korea, where it currently has four plants with a combined annual capacity of 34,000 tons. The company's total copper foil production capacity is expected to reach nearly 100,000 tons per year once it completes the Malaysian plant and two more plants under construction in South Korea, according to BusinessKorea.

SK Nexilis also plans to further invest in Malaysia as well as Europe and the U.S. to increase its copper foil production capacity more than five times by 2025, BusinessKorea reported.

As of Jan. 27, US$1 was equivalent to 1,107.65 South Korean won.