S. Korea's SKC to invest 700 billion won in copper foil factory in Malaysia

South Korea's SKC Inc. will spend 700 billion won to build its first overseas manufacturing factory copper foil, which has an annual capacity of 50,000 tons, in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

SKC and its copper foil-making unit, SK Nexilis Co., which have signed an MoU with the Malaysian government for the facility, will break ground in the latter half of this year.

SK Nexilis will start commercial production in Malaysia in 2023.

The chemical unit of SK Group is considering building more plants in Europe and the United States.

SK Nexilis currently produces 34,000 tons a year and intends to expand local output to over quintuple its production by 2025 to meet growing demand from lithium-ion battery makers, SKC said.

SKC took over KCFT, the world's No. 1 maker of copper foil, for 1.2 trillion won in 2019 and renamed it SK Nexilis.

Copper foil is among the key materials for electric vehicle batteries.