LOTTE Aluminium to build an aluminium cathode foils facility in Kentucky with $238.7 million investment

LOTTE Aluminium, a Seoul-headquartered diverse aluminium products manufacturer, will reportedly build an aluminium foil producing plant in Hardin County, Kentucky. The project will involve an investment of $238.7 million and create 122 full-time jobs.

The news came on Thursday, August 4, after Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced the new upcoming facility, adding that the aluminium foil to be produced there would be used for electric vehicle batteries. The facility will be located near the BlueOvalSK Battery Park in Hardin County, where Ford Motors and SK Innovation are investing $5.8 billion to set up electric vehicle battery manufacturing plants.

“I want to welcome LOTTE to Kentucky as we continue to see significant investment from EV-related businesses across the state,” Beshear said. “Further growth of this sector will require attraction of a broad range of suppliers, and this announcement by LOTTE signifies just that. We are building an ecosystem that will last for generations to come, and I am happy to announce this company will be a very important part of that vision.”

This new plant will be an outcome of a joint venture between LOTTE Chemical and LOTTE Aluminium to produce 36,000 tonnes of cathode foil, a type of ultra-thin aluminium foil used as a core material in EV batteries. LOTTE Aluminium projects an annual demand growth of 32 per cent for cathode foil by 2030.

LOTTE Aluminium and LOTTE Chemical are subsidiaries of LOTTE Group, one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea, with over 90 business units and 80,000 employees. Kim Gyo Hyun, president and CEO of LOTTE Chemical, said:  We will do our best to develop and support technology so that we can stably produce high-quality and high-efficiency cathode foils to respond to customers one step at a time.”

The new aluminium foil plant, LOTTE Aluminium’s first project in the United States, is expected to come into operation in 2025.