Cui Taiyuan, chairman of the SK Group, the second largest enterprise group in South Korea, said that the geopolitical tension between China and the United States keeps the price of electric vehicle batteries at a high level for a long time, and the SK Group also hopes to reduce China to ChinaEconomic dependence.
According to Bloomberg News on Wednesday (October 11), Cui Taiyuan said in an interview that without the reasons for geopolitics and supply chain, the SK Group could have further reduced the battery cost.
SK on the battery manufacturing subsidiary of the SK Group was assigned by Washington to help the United States catch up with China in the electric vehicle market.SK On announced a joint venture of Blueoval with the US Ford Corporation in July, and has obtained a conditional commitment for the US government to provide $ 9.2 billion (S $ 12.5 billion) loans to build three battery factories in the United States.
Although China has the key resources required for electric vehicle batteries, Cui Taiyuan said that the SK Group was forced to find key materials elsewhere in other places, "cannot rely on China 100%."
Cui Taiyuan also publicly called for in July this year that South Korean companies must adopt a market diversified strategy instead of focusing on the Chinese market, so that South Korea can maintain industrial competitiveness.
SK Group made a lot of investment in China.According to the company's annual business report, about 27%of the annual revenue of semiconductor subsidiary SK Hynix last year came from China.
The United States agrees to relax the restrictions on imported US semiconductor equipment in South Korea this week. One of the Korean factories is SK Hynix.Cui Taiyuan welcomed this and said "very happy to hear the news."
