051910.KS - LG Chem, Ltd.

LG Chem share price falls nearly 2% after deadly gas leak in India

The share price of South Korean chemicals and battery maker LG Chem Ltd dropped almost 2% on Thursday after a gas leak at a factory operated by a unit in India killed at least nine people, and led to hundreds more being treated in hospital. The leak was brought under control after being discovered by a maintenance worker on the night shift at the LG Polymers plant, outside the east coast city of Visakhapatnam, in India's southern Andhra Pradesh state, according to a company spokesman. Police in India said that nine people died, and emergency services rushed more than 300 people, mostly villagers living nearby, to hospitals.

RPT-GM to tout its electric vehicles to investors swooning over Tesla

General Motors Co executives on Wednesday will tackle one of their toughest tasks: Persuading investors that a Detroit automaker can catch up with Elon Musk and Tesla Inc as vehicles go electric. GM is by far the larger manufacturer by volume, and generates more cash and profits.

EXPLAINER-Why automakers are on a drive to sell electric cars in Europe

Carmakers are under pressure in Europe to sell more electric cars or face huge fines for breaching new emissions rules aimed at tackling global warming. EU lawmakers also agreed in December 2018 a further cut in CO2 emissions from cars of 37.5% by 2030 compared with 2021 levels - raising the bar just as the fines from the previous target are about to kick in. WHY HAVEN'T ELECTRIC CARS GAINED TRACTION SO FAR?

Europe Pushes on With Gigafactory Plan to Rival Tesla

(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.Germany and France set out a blueprint for a giant battery factory, advancing Europe’s 5 billion euro ($5.5 billion) bid to rival the capacity of Tesla Inc. China to supply the key part for electric vehicles.The announcement at Germany’s Economy and Energy Ministry units underscores determination by European Union nations to catch up with Asian competitors that dominate battery making. Battery cells and add-on electronic devices and software make up as much as half the value of EVs.The facility at Groupe PSA-Opel’s site in Kaiserslautern involves Total SA’s Saft Groupe in a plant that will be named the Automotive Cell Co. The plant will cost about 2 billion euros and will complement a French factory in the Hauts de France region.Germany and France “want to build the best and most sustainable batteries” in Europe, Economy and Energy Minister Peter Altmaier said in a statement from Berlin on Friday. “I’m convinced that battery cells made in Kaiserslautern will set new standards in their CO2 footprint.”Together, the factories will cost about 5 billion euros add production capacity to 48 gigawatt-hours of batteries.Backed by the European Commission, France and Germany dangled subsidies to win over sketics within the auto industry about investing in the technology. While German companies such as Volkswagen AG and BMW AG dominate car manufacturing in Europe, they’ve allowed Asian companies and Tesla to take the lead on making batteries.Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., or CATL, and BYD Co. Ltd. of China are among the leaders in making lithium-ion battery cells, while Tesla has invested in a string of “gigafactories” to supply its luxury electric cars.The European governments also aim to incorporate tighter emission standards in production and recycling stipulations, which may create hurdles for Asian products. European battery cells “won’t be comparable with cheap Chinese products,” Altmaier said last year.The Kaiserslautern factory will be up and running by 2024 and employ 2000 people, Opel’s management board head Michael Lohscheller said. The German and French cell production sites may serve 10% to 15% of demand in Europe, said Altmaier. Germany alone is targeting 7 million to 10 million electric cars on its roads by 2030.Some 13.8 million jobs representing 6.1% of the workforce may be linked to auto manufacturing in the EU. The market for battery cells may be worth as much as 250 billion euros by mid-decade, the EU Commission said.Still, the competition from Asia is likely to be tough.CATL has gained a foothold in Germany in a factory in Thueringia state with a plant with 16 gigawatt-hours of capacity. In 2018, the Chinese company said it aims to be close to the market for for production sites of BMW AG, Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG.LG Chem Ltd is building a battery cell gigafactory in Poland, close to Eastern German car production sites. Tesla Inc. said in November that it will open an electric car production site on the outskirts of Berlin, and Northvolt AB is building a plant in Sweden.(Fixes reference in third paragraph to show factory is at a site, not near headquarters.)To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Parkin in Berlin at bparkin@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net, Lars PaulssonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Tesla battery supplier to resume output in China on Feb. 10

Tesla partners with LG Chem, CATL for battery supply

Tesla, which has a long-standing battery supply agreement with Japan's Panasonic Corp , said its pact with LG Chem and CATL was at a smaller scale. LG Chem declined to comment, while CATL did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Daimler to build 50,000 Mercedes EQC models this year

Daimler on Thursday said it plans to build 50,000 Mercedes EQC electric cars this year, denying a report in Manager Magazin which claimed it had been forced to pare back its 2020 production targets due to battery supply problems. Manager Magazin said Mercedes had slashed its production target to 30,000 from about 60,000 because of a shortage of battery cells from LG Chem .

UPDATE 8-GM, LG Chem to build $2.3 bln electric vehicle battery plant in Ohio

General Motors Co and South Korea's LG Chem said on Thursday they will invest $2.3 billion to build an electric vehicle battery cell joint venture plant in Ohio, creating one of the world's largest battery facilities. The plant, to be built near GM's closed assembly plant in Lordstown in northeast Ohio, will employ more than 1,100 people, the companies said.

GM, LG Chem to invest $2.3 billion in EV battery joint venture

GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra said Thursday morning that the automaker is forming a joint venture with LG Chem to mass produce battery cells for its electric vehicles, a portfolio that will include a new battery-electric truck coming in the fall of 2021. The two companies said they will invest up to a total of $2.3 billion into the new joint venture and will establish a battery cell assembly plant on a greenfield manufacturing site in the Lordstown area of Northeast Ohio that will create more than 1,100 new jobs. GM has used LG Chem as a lithium-ion and electronics supplier for at least a decade.

GM, LG Chem to build $2.3 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Ohio

General Motors Co and South Korea's LG Chem said on Thursday they will invest $2.3 billion (£1.79 billion) to build an electric vehicle battery cell joint venture plant in Ohio, creating one of the world's largest battery facilities. The plant, to be built near GM's closed assembly plant in Lordstown in northeast Ohio, will employ more than 1,100 people, the companies said.

Feuding Korean firms risk disrupting electric car battery supplies

In 2018, South Korea's SK Innovation beat its larger, local rival LG Chem to a multibillion dollar deal to supply German carmaker Volkswagen with electric vehicle batteries in the United States. With great fanfare, SK Innovation (SKI) broke ground in March on a $1.7 billion (£1.3 billion) factory in Commerce, Georgia, about 200 km from VW's Chattanooga plant, which will be the automaker's electric vehicle hub in the United States. LG Chem (LGC) had other ideas.

Tesla Reaches Preliminary Battery-Supply Deal With CATL

(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. has reached a preliminary agreement to start using CATL as a battery supplier for cars made in China from as early as next year, and the companies are in talks to expand the relationship globally, according to people familiar with the matter.Following months of negotiations, the companies clinched a non-binding deal after Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk traveled to Shanghai in late August and met with CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun for about 40 minutes, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing private deliberations. Though a final agreement is expected to be signed by mid 2020, there is no guarantee that will happen, the people said.The batteries would go into Model 3 cars produced at Tesla’s factory near Shanghai, which is slated to begin operating this year. But the companies still need to iron out details such as how many batteries Tesla will purchase, and separate discussions are underway on a potential global supply contract, the people said. Tesla will use batteries from Panasonic Corp. and LG Chem Ltd. in China in the meantime, one of the people said.Securing enough domestic batteries -- the costliest part of an electric vehicle -- is crucial to Musk’s efforts to expand in the world’s biggest car market. Chinese supply would allow Palo Alto, California-based Tesla to rely less on imports, reducing any impact from tariffs that have fluctuated amid the U.S.-China trade war. It’s also likely to please Beijing, which has prioritized the building of a world-leading electric-vehicle ecosystem.CATL rose as much as 7.4% to 78.88 yuan in Shenzhen trading on Wednesday and the stock headed for its highest close since mid-September. Tesla was little changed Tuesday.Representatives for Tesla didn’t respond to requests for comment. LG Chem and CATL declined to comment, while Panasonic wasn’t immediately available to comment.For CATL, whose full name is Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., a final agreement would bolster its profile as one of the world’s emerging battery-making powerhouses. The company, based in the southern province of Fujian, already supplies domestic EV startups including NIO Inc., as well as global carmakers Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG.Tesla has been building the Shanghai plant, its first outside the U.S., for the past nine months, with mass production targeted to start at year-end. The company is also building facilities to eventually make batteries, but in the meantime, it’s agreed to purchase them from LG Chem. The South Korean battery maker won’t have exclusive rights to be Tesla’s battery supplier, people familiar with the arrangement said in August.Should Tesla agree to a global agreement, CATL would become its second such battery partner after Osaka, Japan-based Panasonic.What Bloomberg Intelligence Says“It’s a competitive blow to Panasonic as Tesla was relying on the Japanese battery producer only. But it’s a boon for CATL and LG Chem.”\--Kevin Kim, automobiles analystTesla is likely to try having several strong suppliers, giving it negotiating power as they’ll compete and drive down battery prices, said Kevin Kim, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in Hong Kong. Having several partners also helps Tesla diversify risks such as faulty batteries resulting in fires.NIO Jumps 37% After Pact With Intel on Driverless Car TechnologyBatteries make up the bulk of an electric vehicle’s cost, meaning long-term supply deals with top carmakers can easily reach billions of dollars. The price of a China-built Tesla Model 3 will start at about $50,000, cheaper than foes including NIO’s best-selling ES6.(Updates with comment from analyst in 10th paragraph)\--With assistance from Kyunghee Park, Kae Inoue, Dana Hull and Gabrielle Coppola.To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Haze Fan in Beijing at hfan40@bloomberg.net;Chunying Zhang in Shanghai at czhang714@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net, ;Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net, Ville Heiskanen, Will DaviesFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

‘They Don’t Need Us Anymore’: Auto Workers Fear Electric Unrest

(Bloomberg) -- The milkman went missing thanks to the rise of refrigerators. Switchboard operators were done in by the dawn of direct dialing. And in the car industry, auto workers are deathly afraid the engine assembler will give way to battery builders.Dread over the prospect that plug-in cars -- which have fewer parts and require less labor to build -- will doom auto jobs helped spark the first United Auto Workers strike against General Motors Co. in over a decade. Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, which are rolling their own battery-powered models to market in the coming years, could face a similar fate if they’re unable to quell the UAW’s concerns that widespread adoption of EVs endangers the employment of 35,000 union members.“There’s a potential for our jobs to be gone -- they don’t need us anymore,” said Tim Walbolt, president of the UAW local representing workers at a Fiat Chrysler transmission components plant near Toledo, Ohio. “It scares us.”For all the buzz generated by Tesla Inc., the EV era is still in its infancy, with zero-emission autos having reached just 2% of global production. GM has extended the UAW an offer to get in on the ground floor, pitching a new battery plant staffed by dues-paying union members in an Ohio town jarred by job loss. But the overture came with a catch: GM wants to pay the workers less, and the facility is unlikely to need as many staff as an engine or transmission factory would.A recent study of electric-vehicle production in Europe by consultant AlixPartners found that it took 40% fewer hours to assemble an electric motor and battery than a traditional internal-combustion engine and transmission.“It’s a bad news story from a labor perspective,” said Mark Wakefield, the head of AlixPartners’s automotive practice. “You would just fundamentally need less people.”Perversely, GM also arguably has uncertainty on its side at the bargaining table. It’s going to want concessions to cushion itself against the risk that consumer adoption of electric autos remains slow. The carmaker isn’t fully utilizing the factory that builds the Chevrolet Bolt EV north of Detroit, and tepid demand for the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt put the future of the factory that assembles it in nearby Hamtramck in doubt.Collision CourseThe collision with carmakers over electrification is one the UAW saw coming.“Electric, to me, is where the real risk is to our membership,” Jennifer Kelly, the union’s research director, said during a collective-bargaining conference in Detroit earlier this year.It’s almost certain to carry over from the UAW’s talks with GM to negotiations with Detroit’s other automakers. Ford has estimated electric cars will require 30% fewer hours of labor per vehicle and 50% less factory floor space.“Rationalization of the powertrain portfolio is certainly a huge opportunity for all of us as we start this transition,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s automotive president, told investors on an earnings call in April.Even Fiat Chrysler, a laggard with regard to electrification, has stoked fear at union halls linked to internal-combustion components plants, where rumors are flying that the company plans to outsource work to lower-paying suppliers.“We cannot help but feel like the left behind stepchildren of the UAW,” Mike Booth, the president of the union’s local in Marysville, Michigan, wrote in a letter to the labor group’s Chrysler council last month. He and other UAW leaders fear that German mega-supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG, which took over operation of a Chrysler axle plant in 2008, will take work away from the automaker’s machining facility near Toledo and a transmission and castings complex in Kokomo, Indiana.A Fiat Chrysler spokeswoman categorically denied that another company is seeking to take work from the Toledo or Kokomo operations and called them critical to the automaker’s business. ZF will continue to work with the UAW in Marysville, and an arrangement in which Fiat Chrysler licenses technology from the supplier in Kokomo may be creating some confusion, a spokesman said. He declined to comment on Toledo.‘Shrinking Bubble’In August, GM shut down a transmission plant outside Detroit, affecting more than 260 workers as part of a larger restructuring. That may foreshadow other closures as EV production ramps up. The supply chain is where the job risk is greatest, especially for workers employed making engines, transmissions and sub-components that aren’t needed in EVs.Consultant IHS Markit predicts the introduction of new gas-powered engine families will drop to zero in 2022, from nearly 70 in 2011, as automakers shift spending to electric propulsion. The market for a whole range of parts used in internal combustion vehicles -- such as axles, mufflers, fuel tanks and transmissions -- will shrink in a range from 6% to 20% by 2025, according to a study by Deloitte Consulting.“The value chain is shifting and companies and their unions are going to have to figure out how to change themselves or risk becoming part of a shrinking bubble,” said Neal Ganguli, head of the auto supply base group at Deloitte’s U.S. automotive practice.That’s a problem because engines and transmissions currently account for just under half of automaker manufacturing capacity, Credit Suisse auto analyst Dan Levy estimated in a Sept. 23 note to investors. As a result, automakers may face labor, social and political challenges as they transition to EVs, he wrote.‘Rough Time’GM’s EV factory in Lake Orion, Michigan, offers a window into what the UAW is worried about.While the plant is unionized, the automaker staffs it in part with lower-wage employees under a special contract. What’s more, 64% of the fully electric Bolt model’s content is made in Korea, including the battery.One of the biggest suppliers is Seoul-based LG Chem Ltd., which makes cells in South Korea and assembles packs for GM and Fiat Chrysler at a non-union plant in western Michigan with a starting wage for technicians of $16 an hour.That’s close to what Ford pays its entry-level temporary workers, but far below the $28 to $30 an hour for legacy UAW employees. Temp workers at Ford’s engine and transmission plants also can move up into legacy wage brackets, which isn’t the case at LG’s facility.“The move to electric could weaken the union further,” Joshua Murray, a labor expert and assistant professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University. “Certainly, the UAW is going to have to try to organize the battery plants, but I think they’ll have a rough time.”Imported BatteriesNo major automaker entirely outsources engines, in no small part thanks to displacement and horsepower being the source of marketing buzz and bragging rights for decades. EVs are a different story -- even Tesla relies heavily on Japan’s Panasonic Corp. in the making of its battery packs.Batteries -- the single most expensive part of an electric vehicle -- are almost exclusively manufactured overseas and mostly by companies relatively new to the automotive powertrain, such as China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. and South Korea’s SK Innovation Co.SK Innovation broke ground earlier this year on a new battery factory outside of Atlanta, which will employ some 2,000 non-union workers. And CEO Jun Kim thinks carmakers will have a tough time replicating what his company does.“There is a difference between the DNA of automakers and battery makers such as us,” Kim said in a March interview. “There are only a handful of battery suppliers that are capable of delivering high-quality products while guaranteeing cost competitiveness.”\--With assistance from David Welch.To contact the reporters on this story: Chester Dawson in Southfield at cdawson54@bloomberg.net;Keith Naughton in Southfield, Michigan at knaughton3@bloomberg.net;Gabrielle Coppola in New York at gcoppola@bloomberg.netTo contact the editor responsible for this story: Craig Trudell at ctrudell1@bloomberg.netFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

SK Innovation fuels LG Chem feud with EV battery patent lawsuit

A feud between two South Korean battery makers escalated on Friday as SK Innovation Co Ltd said it plans to sue bigger rival LG Chem Ltd in the United States over alleged patent infringement related to electric vehicles (EV). The proposed new lawsuit by SK Innovation drew a swift denunciation from LG Chem, which called the action "groundless" and said it would seek compensation. The two companies have been at loggerheads since LG Chem sued SK in the United States in April for alleged theft of trade secrets by hiring former LG Chem employees.

Tesla to Buy Batteries for Chinese Factory from LG Chem

Today, citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that Tesla (TSLA) had agreed to buy batteries from LG Chem (LGCLF).