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Kentucky governor meets with S. Korean battery firms to woo investment

July 15, 2024

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear met with officials from South Korea’s major electric vehicle (EV) battery and materials companies in a bid to attract additional investment to the U.S. state, industry sources said Monday.

The Kentucky governor came to Korea on Sunday for meetings on Monday with executives of car battery maker SK On Co. and Lotte Chemical Corp., which makes EV battery materials, according to the sources.

He also plans to meet officials from LG Chem Ltd., which owns about an 80 percent stake in the country’s leading car battery maker, LG Energy Solution Ltd., and other Korean companies during his stay in Korea.

“The journey to South Korea is our opportunity to connect with our current business partners and develop new relationships that will bring good jobs to our new Kentucky home,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

In late 2022, SK On started the construction of an EV battery plant in Kentucky under a joint venture with Ford Motor Co., with an aim to begin operations in 2025.

In the same year, Lotte Chemical set up a joint venture with a local firm in Kentucky to build an aluminum foil plant by the first half of 2025.