Blue Oval SK Kentucky Plant, Photo: SK On

[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] SK ON and U.S. automaker Ford's project to build a battery plant in Turkey has officially been canceled.

According to the industry on the 8th, Turkey's Koc Group said on the 7th (local time), "The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on battery production investment with Ford and SK On has ended." SK ON, Ford, and Coach signed an MOU to build a battery plant in Turkey in March last year, but negotiations were slow.

MOU's failure is expected to be the result of Ford Autosan and SK On, local joint ventures between Ford and Koc, failing to narrow their differences in battery supply prices. Another reason is that there has been a global economic slowdown since the war between Russia and Ukraine last year.

Although the construction of SK ON's Turkiye plant has failed, there are observations that it will rather work positively on SK ON. This is because the investment originally intended to be used can be redistributed to profitable places. SK ON is known to have to invest between 1.2 trillion won and 1.6 trillion won in building factories in Turkey.

The industry expects LG Energy Solutions to participate in projects in Turkey instead of SK ON. Koc Group said in a public announcement, "We are discussing with LG Energy Solutions in advance."

 

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