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| SK Innovation's battery plant site in Georgia / Courtesy of SK Innovation |
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has asked U.S. President Joe Biden to overturn a U.S. trade panel's decision against SK Innovation (SKI) in a misappropriation of trade secrets case concerning electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
Kemp repeated his request in a letter to Biden, Friday (local time), to save thousands of jobs in northeast Georgia directly tied to an SKI EV battery plant in the town of Commerce there
SKI has been building a plant in the U.S. state, to be completed by 2022, to provide EV batteries to Ford Motor and Volkswagen. It is also building a second plant at the site and has pledged to hire 2,600 people by 2024.
"The livelihoods of thousands of Georgians are now in your hands," Kemp said in the letter.
He asked Biden to veto the U.S. International Trade Commission's (USITC) recent ruling, stating, "It is contrary to the public interest and will seriously jeopardize your administration's environmental and economic goals."
Last week, the commission said SKI misappropriated trade secrets from its South Korea-based rival LG Energy Solutions (LGSE) for its development of EV batteries.
The USITC also said it was clear that SKI would have needed at least a decade to develop the knowledge it gained from the trade secrets stolen from LGES.
SKI claims it did not need LGES's trade secrets as its development and manufacturing methods for EV batteries was different from that used by LGES.
The commission's final ruling came about a month after it ruled in favor of LGES in the trade secret case and issued a 10-year import ban for SKI on some lithium-ion batteries and their components.
However, the USITC did permit the limited shipment of components to allow SKI to produce batteries at the plant for Ford Motor for four years and Volkswagen for two years.
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| Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signs House Bill 521 at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, Thursday, July 16, 2020, in Marietta, Ga. Yonhap |
SKI expressed regret and said it would strongly ask Biden to exercise his veto power over the commission's decision.
The USITC decision could jeopardize SKI's promises to create American jobs, and complicate Biden's push to expand EV adoption under a Green New Deal initiative.
The Biden administration has 60 days to review the ruling, and without a presidential veto it will become final.
LGES has suggested it could run the SKI plant in Georgia in partnership with an outside investor in an apparent attempt to ease Kemp's concerns on potential job losses.
CEO Kim Jong-hyun said in a March 10 letter to U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock that his company "is prepared to do whatever we can to help the people and workers of Georgia," according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"Multiple investors and manufacturers ... will be interested in the Commerce plant due to increased demand for electric vehicle batteries," Kim said.
On Friday, LGES said it would invest 5 trillion won (US$4.5 billion) by 2025 to expand its battery production capacity in the United States to meet growing demand in the key market.
The battery subsidiary wholly owned by LG Chem Ltd. said the investment will increase its U.S. manufacturing capacity to 75 gigawatt hours (GWh) and help create 10,000 jobs, including 6,000 subcontractors.
The company operates a lithium-ion battery factory in Michigan and is building a new one Ohio in a joint venture with U.S. automaker General Motors, which will be completed in 2022.
LGES said the joint venture will select a site for a second factory that will be similar in size in the first half of the year.
The firm, which provides batteries to Tesla and a number of other global automakers, said the investment was aimed at catering to growing demand and contributing to the Biden administration's Green New Deal initiative. (Yonhap)
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