SK Group steps up cuts at battery units as EV demand slows

SK Group has stepped up cost cuts at its loss-making battery affiliates as global EV demand slows.

According to industry officials, SKC, parent of copper-foil maker SK Nexilis, told staff it will offer voluntary redundancy to employees hired before 2025, with severance pay.

SK IE Technology (SKIET), a separator maker spun off from SK Innovation, offered voluntary exits and unpaid leave options to employees.

SK Nexilis and SKIET posted consecutive annual operating losses last year, including 174.6 billion won at Nexilis and 246.3 billion won at SKIET.

SK Battery America said it cut 958 of 2,566 jobs at its Georgia plant, citing slowing EV demand and changes in market conditions; the US joint venture between SK On and Ford was dissolved in December.

SK On expects to break even this year after securing a large ESS battery order.

🔗 Source: The Korea Times

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

These cost cuts support SKC’s financial rebalancing and push into glass substrates

SKC’s layoffs tie into a broader financial reset, including plans to raise about 1 trillion won ($750 million) through a rights offering 1.
Roughly 590 billion won of that money is set aside for Absolics, SKC’s glass substrate subsidiary (a unit making advanced packaging materials used in AI data centers), rather than the struggling copper foil business 1.
SKC’s semiconductor materials division posted record-high annual performance, helped by demand for high-value-added products used in AI data centers 2.

SK On’s pivot to energy storage is scaling up amid an EV slowdown

SK On won 50.3% of a 1 trillion won government energy storage system (ESS) tender, after getting no contracts in the previous year’s first tender 3.
Overseas growth includes a deal to supply up to 7.2 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of ESS batteries to Flatiron Energy Development between 2026 and 2030 4.
To handle rising ESS demand, SK On plans to repurpose some EV battery lines in Georgia for ESS production and start mass production of ESS-dedicated lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in the second half of next year 4.