South Korea’s Iljin Materials Co. announced on Wednesday that it will invest 158.4 billion won ($142 million) to build a factory that would churn out 10,000 tons of elecfoil, a core material for an electric vehicle rechargeable battery, per year in Malaysia.

This is part of the company’s long-term plan to bolster its global output of elecfoil to 50,000 tons per year on expectations that demand for the core EV battery material would surge in line with the burgeoning EV market.

Once the factory construction is completed, its annual elecfoil output is expected to jump to 24,000 tons from current 14,000 tons, according to the company, which aims to complete its construction in the free trade zone in Malaysia by the second half of 2018. The company would later decide whether and when to make a follow-up investment after monitoring the market conditions.

Iljin Materials has decided to up its elecfoil production to meet the rising demand as the electric car and energy storage system markets have been rapidly growing, the company said. Elecfoil, a thin cooper foil with a thickness of 10 micrometers (㎛) or less, is a core material for a current collector that forms cathode in an electric car battery.

The company has chosen Malaysia as the site for its new elecfoil factory because the country offers easy access to overseas markets where its major customers including Samsung SDI and LG Chem have their offshore EV battery plants, it explained. It has been supplying elecfoil to Korean EV battery makers Samsung SDI and LG Chem, as well as China’s largest electric car maker BYD.

The latest investment will allow the company to move a step closer to leading rechargeable battery market with a new growth engine, said Iljin Material CEO Ju Jae-hwan.

Shares of Iljin Materials Wednesday ended 4.71 percent up at 33,350 won from the previous session.

By Shin Soo-hyun and Lee Ha-yeon

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