[THE INVESTOR] Samsung SDI said on May 30 that it has completed construction of a battery production plant for electric vehicles in Hungary.

The firm said it would start rolling out EV batteries at the plant from the second quarter of 2018. The newly built plant, sitting on 330,000 square meters of land, boasts a monthly production capacity that can power 50,000 EVs. 

Samsung SDI CEO Jun Young-hyun (left), with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at SDI’s new plant on May 29. Samsung SDI

SDI said its Hungarian plant will help dramatically reduce shipment costs and serve as a battery production hub in Europe.

“Batteries that will be produced at the Hungarian plant will feature SDI’s most advanced technology and make significant contributions to the growth of EV market in Europe,” said Jun Young-hyun, CEO of Samsung SDI.

The company held an event to celebrate the completion of the construction on May 29, in which around 150 Hungarian government officials and SDI executives participated.

The battery business unit of Samsung Group used to run a plant for plasma display panels at the same site in Hungary.

The battery maker currently has two other battery manufacturing complexes in Ulsan, Korea, and Xian, China.

The production lines for EV batteries at the Xian plant have been nearly idle for months since the Chinese government has stopped providing subsidies to the Korean firm in retaliation for the Korean government’s deployment of a THAAD missile system.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)