South Korean chemicals-to-materials firm SKC said Friday that the company has kicked off construction of Europe’s largest copper foil manufacturing factory in Poland.

The firm’s copper foil manufacturing and investment unit, SK Nexilis, is spending 900 billion won ($693 million) to establish a copper foil production facility in Stalowa Wola, Poland, that has an annual manufacturing volume of 50,000 metric tons. Construction is expected to be completed by the first half of 2024. The company will start mass production in the second half of 2024.

SK Nexilis specializes in the manufacturing of copper foil, a critical component of battery anodes that are used for batteries in electric vehicles.

The new manufacturing facility in Poland will have the highest volume in Europe, according to the firm.

SK Nexilis said its Poland factory will play a role as a major hub in Europe for its business, thanks to its vicinity to global battery makers’ production plants.

The Korean firm added that it would also review the expansion of the facility to increase annual manufacturing volume to 150,000 metric tons in the future. It has already secured some 170,000 square meters of land nearby to expand the facility.

By 2025, SK Nexilis plans to have the capacity to produce 250,000 metric tons of products across its global factories located in South Korea, Malaysia, Europe and North America. Last year, the company broke ground on a copper foil manufacturing plant in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, with an annual capacity of 50,000 metric tons. The firm has been recently pushing with a construction of a similar-sized plant in North America.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)