Japan’s Asahi Kasei was considering building a battery separator factory abroad, TheElec has learned.
The company was considering Europe or North America, people familiar with the matter said.
If Asahi Kasei decides to build a factory in North America, it will be the first separator maker to do so. South Korea’s SK IE Technology currently has a factory in Poland, Europe.
Asahi Kasei said last year that it will spend 30 billion yen to expand its annual separator production capacity to 350 million meter-square __ which will make it have an annual capacity of 1.9 billion meter-square in total by 2023,
SK IE Technology, in turn, is aiming for an annual production capacity of 2.73 billion meter-square by 2024 through its factories in South Korea, China and Poland.
The South Korean company is currently considering building a new factory in the US.
The company could first build a back-end factory for local battery cell companies and automakers there.
There is currently a shortage of separators, which is causing battery cell companies to secure bare films first and give coating work to third parties, the people said.