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The annual salaries of all executive-level employees were frozen, and the company announced that it would enter an "emergency management state" from July 7.

worldwideSK On, the fourth largest battery manufacturer,I can't sit still anymore...

According to the Financial Times, it has been continuously10 quarters of losses, I have hardly made any money in the past few years.

andNet debt is also increasing.Compared with the same period last year,2.9 trillion won to 15.6 trillion won, which is more than five times.

As soon as the relevant news came out, many netizens speculated whether SK On was going to fail.

SK Group should be familiar to everyone. It is one of the three largest chaebols in South Korea. Its resources and background are impeccable.

As a subsidiary of them,It was highly anticipated when it was establishedSK On, but ended up in what he is now. To be honest, Shichao was quite shocked and curious.

Taking this opportunity, we looked through SK On’s past information and found that it has made a “great contribution” to its current status.

One of the biggest reasons is thatWrong betIn the first few years after SK On was spun off, when new energy vehicles were gaining momentum, it also won an order of 1,000 GWh.

However, SK On only had a production capacity of several dozen GWh at the time, which was far from enough to meet these orders. So it made a move that now seems not so wise:Expand production capacity, but in Europe and the United States...

It is not difficult to understand why this choice was made at that time. After all, the image that Europe and the United States had created for the outside world in the past few years was that of very good-looking new energy vehicles.

In order to revitalize the entire industry chain, the United States passed a bill on "new energy vehicle tax credits". This prompted SK On to reach cooperation with Ford, Hyundai Motor, etc., and they will successively build 5 factories。

In addition, the Biden administration also introduced the Inflation Reduction Act, allowing non-Chinese battery companies including SK On to receive billions of dollars in subsidies, which further fueled their expansion of production capacity in Europe and the United States.

According to Tianfeng Securities, SK On has so far planned 92 GWh for Europe and 150 GWh for the United States, but only 77 GWh of production capacity has been allocated to China, which accounts for 60% of the new energy vehicle market share.

However,Before these factories were completed and put into productionWell, the new energy market in the United States has shrunk. . .

The data for the first quarter of this year was a heavy blow. While the overall electric vehicle market grew by 5%, the US market only grew by 2.7%.

To be more specific, General Motors, one of SK On's major customers, was confident last year that its electric vehicle sales would reach 1 million by 2025.

As a result, when the data for the second quarter of this year came out, everyone was dumbfounded. Only 21,930 electric vehicles were sold.

It turns out that the demand has only increased on paper, and the actual sales volume has not increased at all. . .

Perhaps realizing that the market would not improve, European and American automakers began to collectively give up. Ford, General Motors, and Tesla have all suspended plans to expand electric vehicle production capacity.

This cold water will naturally also be poured on the battery industry. For example, Ford, an important customer of SK On, suspended its $50 billion investment in electric vehicles in October last year.Their plan to build a second battery factory in joint venture was also delayed.

At this time, SK On is like a parent who has failed to educate his child effectively. All the original investments have now turned into debt, which is why the scene at the beginning of the video, "executives suspend their salaries to save themselves", has occurred.

Of course, in addition to the weak European and American markets, SK On's technological route also has many problems.

At present, their main products areTernary lithium batteryThe soft-pack battery is mainly made of , although its energy density is excellent, but compared with CATL and BYDLithium iron phosphate batteryHowever, it also has one biggest flaw: the cost of raw materials is too high (it contains precious metal elements such as cobalt).

Now that new energy vehicle companies are competing on prices, there is no need to waste time on who has the advantage.

Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y, for example, use lithium iron phosphate batteries from CATL. As battery costs have dropped, the prices of these two models have also dropped several times.

Even car companies such as BMW, Ford, Hyundai, and Renault are considering switching to more cost-effective lithium iron phosphate batteries.

SK On is obviously aware of this problem. While developing cobalt-free ternary lithium batteries, it is also developing lithium iron phosphate batteries. However, this is all in the future. It will take at least two years to mass-produce lithium iron phosphate batteries. By then, it is not impossible that more cost-effective solid-state batteries will be available.

Anyway, SK On is now facing internal and external troubles.But if we want to conclude that SK On is no longer viable, it is probably too early.

Moreover, the overall market downturn is a problem that all battery companies will face. For example, CATL's operating income in the first quarter of this year also fell by 10% year-on-year, and LG Energy's revenue fell by 30% year-on-year.

However, SK On may be more affected due to its own planning issues.

But even so, its battery business sales last year were 12.9 trillion won, a record high. Adding the previous backlog of orders, the conservative estimate is still 400 trillion won.

What’s more, it has the powerful SK Group backing it up…

Just a few days ago, SK Group officially announced thatSK Innovation, the parent company of SK On, may merge with its energy subsidiary SK E&S, a company with assets of 524 billion yuan.

This is done forLet SK On continue to lose money。。。

How long it can continue to suck this blood and whether it can help it survive this period depends on its performance in the second half of the year.

At least SK On has set its goal to achieve break-even in the second half of this year.

Written by:squirrel

edit: Jiang Jiang, Noodles

Art editor: Huan Yan

Image, source：

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