Lotte Chairman Shin Dong-bin, right, takes a photo with company staff to promote Korea's bid to host the World Expo 2030 in Busan during his visit to Dublin, Ireland. Courtesy of Lotte Group
Conglomerate to invest W110 bil. to increase battery material production
By Kim Hyun-bin-
Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, who has been on a business trip to Europe, announced he will invest an additional 110 billion won ($84.8 million) to double the production of anode foil, a key secondary battery material, during his visit to the Lotte Cluster, built in the Turtovanyeo Industrial Complex in Hungary, the company said, Wednesday.
According to the Lotte Group, Chairman Shin, who visited the Lotte Aluminum Hungarian plant, which is scheduled to begin mass production in July, directly visited the site and decided to double the production of anode foil so that Lotte might better position itself for the rapidly growing European electric vehicle (EV) market.
Lotte Aluminum's Hungary plant is capable of producing 18,000 tons of anode foil for secondary batteries per year.
In the Lotte Cluster, there are the Lotte Chemical and Lotte Aluminum plants, as well as Solus Advanced Materials' anode foil production plant, a company into which Lotte Fine Chemical and Lotte Aluminum invested 300 billion won. Lotte E&C is also developing the largest logistics center in Hungary based on a single warehouse.
Meanwhile, Chairman Shin also promoted Korea's efforts to host the World Expo 2030 in Busan during the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) Global Summit held in Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday. The chairman promoted the bid to attract the Expo to Busan during several business meetings with global conglomerate CEOs such as PepsiCo, Proctor & Gamble Co., and Walmart Inc.
CGF is a global consultative body in the consumer goods industry, established in 1953 to provide a forum for discussion and knowledge sharing for a better life for people around the world, with over 400 consumer goods manufacturers and distributors from 70 countries taking part. Representative CGF members include global companies such as PepsiCo, Amazon, WalMart Inc., Carrefour SA, Aeon, Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Danone. Lotte has been a member since 2012.
Chairman Shin is set to hold a Value Creation Meeting (VCM) for the first time in the group in the second half of the year in Busan. The VCM will host around 100 representatives of major Lotte affiliates and executives from holding companies to gather to discuss the direction of the group. Shin plans to seek practical and all-round support from Lotte's affiliates to host the World Expo 2030 in Busan, the company said.
