Taking Shot at Top Position

Samsung SDI eyes top rank in 2nd generation battery global market, expansion of AMOLED business on its 40th anniversary

Samsung SDI Co. announced its new strategy to expand the lithium ion car battery and ESS, the second car battery business, as its new growth engines on the occasion of its 40th anniversary on May 14, which was celebrated in a ceremony held at the company’s Cheonan plant in South Chungcheong Province.
President Choi Chi-hoon, in his commemorative speech at the ceremony, said the glory achieved by the company in the past four decades is owed to officers and staff that are here now and spent their life with the company. “The company will continue to move ahead with a DNA that made such a huge success possible in the display production business and we should push our lithium battery business to the top spot in the world,” the CEO said.
Choi said the company should be a top company in the small battery industry in the world, expand new orders for car batteries and build a cooperative network in the ESS business in order to maintain the No. 1 position in the battery business.
The CEO said the company will strive to come up with the technologies for the production of the batteries that will come after the 2nd generation batteries and seek new businesses linked with lithium ion battery production.
He urged everyone in the company to work not only hard but smart and in closer cooperation and communication among departments in a change of its corporate culture to make the company a good place to work and a great company in the world.
Samsung SDI’s history can be referred to as that of Korea’s, as it brought the country to the forefront of the world display product business. The company was launched as Samsung NEC in 1970, a joint venture with NEC of Japan, to produce mainly braun tubes at first. The name was changed to Samsung Electronic Tube in 1974 and then to the current name in 1999.
As has been widely known, the company showed the world what a daring investment in technologies and businesses can do, securing a dominant position in both black and white and color braun tube production globally, bringing honor to both Samsung and Korea.
The company later entered the LCD and PDP businesses to open the age of mobile and digital displays. In 2000, the company took up the AMOLED business, a next generation display business, and successfully produced the 4th generation AMOLED en masse to set the pace of the development of the business.
From braun tubes, LCD, PDP and OLED, the company built a huge base for the electronics industry in Korea, a formerly barren land for such highly sophisticated businesses, making Korea the strongest in such businesses in the world.
Samsung SDI entered the lithium 2nd generation battery business in 2000 and has reached the rank of 2nd best in the world in the decade since, changing its key business to the 2nd generation battery from the display production business.
The company has been getting global attention as an environmentally friendly green-growth company thanks to its diversification drive into batteries for cars and the large power storage business, all related to the 2nd generation battery business.
SB LiMotive, a joint venture between South Korea’s Samsung SDI and Germany’s Robert Bosch, plans to invest 500 billion won ($410 million) in an electric vehicle battery plant by 2015.
The new plant, which will be built in the southeastern city of Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province, will produce secondary batteries used in hybrid electric vehicles from 2011, the South Korean company said.
“The joint venture is targeting a 30 percent share in the global auto battery market by 2015,” said Kim Soon-taek, CEO of Samsung SDI.
Samsung SDI reported a 72-percent rise in quarterly operating profit, with a boom in smart phones and other mobile gadgets sparking the demand for rechargeable batteries.
The maker of lithium-ion batteries and plasma display panels (PDPs) posted 64.6 billion won ($58.5 million) in consolidated operating profit in the first quarter, against a revised 37.5 billion won operating profit a year ago.
The results beat a consensus forecast of 55 billion won from 22 analysts surveyed by foreign credit firms and beat a revised 55.6 billion won profit three months earlier. nw

(left0 President Choi Chi-hoon of Samsung SDI Co.
President Choi Chi-hoon delivers a speech at a ceremony for the 40th anniversary of Samsung SDI on May 14 at its Cheonan Plant in Gyeonggi Province.