BlueOval SK, the battery joint venture between SK On and Ford, is expected to resume spending on building battery factories in the US next month, TheElec has learned.
The latest spending round will be their planned factory in Tennessee. BlueOval SK is expected to spend 3 trillion won in total for the factory.
BlueOval SK is planning to house a battery factory, Ford’s electric vehicle assembly plant and other material and component facilities at BlueOval City, the name of the production cluster the joint venture is planning to built at Tennessee.
SK On is expected to place orders and receive bids from suppliers near the end of September, sources said. It has already sent letters of intent to the suppliers.
The battery factory in Tennessee will have a capacity of 43GWh per year and will house 17 production lines that make short-length (300mm) and long-length (600mm) batteries.
Mixing equipment is expected to be supplied by Yunsung F&C while electrode equipment will be provided by PNT.
Youil Energy Tech and Woowon Technology are expected to supply notching and stacking equipment. SFA is to supply the inspection kits.
Mplus and Hana Technology will compete to supply tab welders and packagers.
Hana Technology won the orders for the equipment for SK On’s factory in Yancheng, China last year.
Mplus had won the order for the factory in Ivansca, Hungary and the second factory at Yangcheng earlier this year.
Suppliers that win the order for Tennessee will likely win orders for two planned factories in Kentucky.
