LG Energy Solution is attempting to outbid sister company LG Electronics for equipment orders that will be placed by its joint venture with Hyundai Motor Group, TheElec has learned.
LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Motor Group’s battery-making joint venture in the US is expected to start placing orders for equipment soon.
Sources said LG Energy Solution plans to form its own pool of equipment suppliers for them to make a competitive bid.
They will be competing with bids made by LG Production engineering Research Institute (PRI), a part of LG Electronics, with its own equipment suppliers.
In the past, for example for Ultium Cells, the joint venture between LG Energy Solution and General Motors, orders for assembly equipment were made by LG PRI while the other equipment was handled by LG Energy Solution.
This meant that it was highly likely that Nain Tech or DA Technology, which are registered to LG PRI, would win the order for advanced z-stacking, or AZS, equipment from the Hyundai venture.
However, for the latest bid, Top Engineering, which makes assembly equipment and is a direct supplier to LG Energy Solution, has also joined the fray.
If Top Engineering beats Nain Tech and DA Technology to win the bid, LG PRI would be losing a huge project. The institute earns agency fees from its equipment makers for the bids.
LG Energy Solution and Hyundai Motor’s US factory is a US$7.59 billion project and is expected to place orders for AZS equipment worth hundreds of billions of wons.
