[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Paul Lee] KG Mobility (formerly Ssangyong Motor) will hand over its battery pack business, a key component of electric vehicles, to KG Steel.

Some analysts say KG Mobility is handing over its business rights to KG Steel in order to make it a business structure favorable to the owner's family, including KG Group Chairman Kwak Jae-sun. KG Steel's largest shareholder is KG Steel Holdings, which is controlled by KG Steel Holdings, while KG Chemicals is dominated by the owner family, including Chairman Kwak Jae-sun (16.09% stake) and his son Kwak Jung-hyun (3.07%).

According to industry sources on the 20th, KG Steel, a steel subsidiary of KG Group, decided to invest 70 billion won to build a battery pack plant of 50,000 electric vehicles annually at a board meeting held on the 17th. The plant is responsible for supplying BYD's lithium phosphate iron (LFP) battery cells to KG Mobility by making battery packs for electric vehicles as the main material. The plant will begin construction at the end of this year and start producing products in the second half of next year.

KG Steel invests in battery pack business, but KG Mobility is the main body of production and factory operation. The factory will also be built on idle land in KG Mobility's engine plant in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. KG Mobility is in charge of manufacturing battery packs, and the business right to sell them will become a "out of common sense" business structure owned by KG Steel.

KG Steel is a steel company that produces cold-rolled steel plates and zinc steel plates, and it is pointed out that it lacks expertise in battery sales business.

 

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