CHUNGCHEONGBUK-DO < invest Korea

According to Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea,

LG Energy Solution Ltd. (LGES), the pure-play electric vehicle battery maker under South Korea’s LG Group, plans to develop its manufacturing plant in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province, as the “mother factory” that is in charge of key development, production, and research.

According to multiple industry sources on Tuesday, Kwon Young-soo, vice chairman of LGES, sent a message to the employees at the Ochang energy plant on Monday, saying that the location should become a mother factory and the hub of global factories. A mother factory refers to a production base that performs core functions such as product planning, research and development, and design.

“We will intensively nurture the Ochang plant as a mother factory that sets global standards where cutting-edge production technologies and core processes are preemptively developed and applied (before other factories overseas),” Kwon said.

LGES is pursuing an upgrade to the factory monitoring control center (FMCC), which allows the Ochang plant to review abnormalities in facilities and processes based on a deep learning system using video data on global production lines and artificial intelligence.

Ochang plant produces pouch and cylindrical battery cells. The next-generation 4680-type cylindrical battery cells will be mass produced from the second half of this year, according to sources.

“Ochang is a control tower where new, advanced technologies are applied first,” Kwon said. “We will expand and deploy the system built here to production bases around the world. Product analyses, response measure guidelines and decision-making (related to overseas plants) will also take place remotely from Ochang.”

He also noted that LGES is making an extensive investment to that end and that the company will also introduce smart factories and AI systems such as remote support, manufacturing intelligence, and logistics automation to all new production lines.

LGES plans to concentrate key research personnel and facilities in Ochang to make it the first plant to apply advanced manufacturing technology and develop next-generation batteries. This way, tasks will be separated between domestic and overseas plants as verified results from Ochang will be transplanted to overseas factories before production and sales.

LGES’s focus on the Ochang plant comes as it is building more overseas factories after the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act came into effect and there is a need for a global battery production hub.

The European Commission is adding pressure on the Korean battery industry with its draft of the Core Raw Materials Act (CRMA). LGES is hoping that the Ochang plant plays a key role in brushing off concerns about leakages in the core technology and process know-hows from its overseas factories.


By Jung You-jung and Choi Jieun

Copyrights Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (Mar. 29, 2023)