206.7 Billion! South Korea Invests Heavily in Supporting Lithium Battery Industry

According to Yonhap News Agency, on December 13, South Korea’s Ministry of Finance announced that it will provide 38 trillion won (approximately 206.7 billion yuan) in policy financing to the lithium battery industry over the next five years, this policy will be formally implemented in 2024.

South Korea also plans to establish a 1 trillion won lithium battery industry promotion fund and invest 73.6 billion won in research and development of related technologies. At the same time, the South Korean government has decided to increase the key mineral reserves required for domestic lithium battery manufacturing and cultivate a battery reuse and recycling ecosystem, while providing tax incentives and loan support to companies investing in overseas resource development.

To reduce dependence on key minerals, the South Korean government plans to invest 240 billion won in building a key mineral storage base to increase reserves of lithium, cobalt and other lithium battery raw materials, while providing 250 billion won in funds to support companies in refining the above raw materials.

In addition, the Korean government also plans to include lithium battery patents in the priority examination fast track and increase the number of professional examiners to shorten the lithium battery patent examination cycle that currently takes 21 months to 10 months.

In November last year, the South Korean government joined hands with lithium battery companies such as LG New Energy, Samsung SDI, and SK ON to jointly establish a battery alliance, which will invest 50 trillion won (approximately 255.55 billion yuan) to lay out the battery industry chain. The Korean government plans to achieve the goal of Korean lithium battery companies achieving a 40% share of the global power battery market by 2030.