WASHINGTON (Reuters) -New investments by South Korean conglomerate SK Group in the United States announced on Tuesday reflect successful efforts by the Biden administration to create more resilient and secure supply chains, the White House said on Tuesday.
South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate was expected to announce $22 billion in new investments in U.S. manufacturing, the White House said.
SK Group includes world’s second-largest memory chipmaker SK Hynix as well as SK Innovation, the parent of South Korea’s largest refiner SK Energy and battery maker SK On. SK officials in Seoul did not immediately offer details of the plan.
“This announcement by SK Group is also another proof point of the success of the Administration’s efforts to create more resilient and secure supply chains and outcompete the rest of the world in the technologies of the future,” a White House spokesperson said.
The SK Group’s battery unit has announced investment of about $6.2 billion since 2018 to build two stand-alone factories in Georgia and three plants with Ford Motor Co in Tennessee and Kentucky.
SK’s chairman said last year it planned to invest about $52 billion in the United States through 2030.
In May, SK Group said it will invest 247 trillion won ($195.24 billion) in the semiconductor, battery and biopharmaceutical sectors over the next five years in South Korea and overseas. [nS6N2WO001]
U.S. President Joe Biden will meet virtually on Tuesday with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to discuss the company’s investments in American manufacturing and jobs, the White House said earlier.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Jack Kim; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee; editing by Jacqueline Wong and Jason Neely)
