LG Chem signs $595m loan for EV battery plant in Poland
LG Chem, South Korea's largest chemical company, has signed a $595 million loan agreement with three banks in the latest move to secure financial resources to expand an electric vehicle battery plant in Poland.
The loan by the Korea Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of Korea and NH Nonghyup came a month after LG Chem acquired a Turkish television assembly factory in Wroclaw, Poland, for $31.4 million to expand its plant for EV batteries.
The $595 million loan complements a €480 million facility agreed with the European Investment Bank in March. The EIB said the loan will be used for the construction and operation of manufacturing facilities in Wroclaw for advanced lithium-ion cells and batteries for electric vehicles.
The financing will cover around a third of total project costs, estimated at €1.5 billion. The remainder will come from LG Chem's own resources and other financing sources, according to the EIB.
The EIB-backed project will have an annual production capacity of over 35 gigawatt-hours, which could potentially power more than 500,000 zero-emission electric cars per year, according to the bank.
