Looking back, it wasn't a "chasm (temporary demand slump)" but a "recession."
People & Technology executive director Seo Jeong-seok, a battery expert with 30 years of experience who took part in InterBattery 2026 held at Coex in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 11th and 12th, said, "As the slowdown in electric vehicle demand has dragged on, the battery industry is in a slump."
As the three large domestic battery makers (LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, SK On) posted annual losses in the trillions of won, Korea's battery industry, which built an ecosystem around them, has entered a "survival game." While cutting costs, companies are also seeking various ways to break through the downturn by expanding their business areas.
Companies participating in InterBattery, the country's largest battery industry exhibition now in its 14th year, actively introduced self-help measures found to overcome the downturn as well as their technologies. This year's event drew 667 corporations, including the three domestic battery makers, as well as materials, parts, and equipment corporations and overseas affiliates.
Philenergy, which supplies battery equipment to Samsung SDI, is expanding strategic investments despite lower sales due to weak market conditions. Last year it increased its equity stake in Dowon Wiztech, a specialist in cylindrical winding machines, and this year it decided to invest in U.S. solid-state battery company Factorial.
Philenergy Vice President Lee Hyeong-no explained the investment background, saying, "Until now we focused on a single business supplying battery equipment to key clients, but going forward we will expand our scope from simple equipment supply to equipment engineering."
Philenergy also plans to bid for turnkey (end-to-end supply) orders. To that end, it is pursuing expanded sales targeting turnkey orders from defense and shipping-related battery companies in the United States and Europe.
Vice President Lee said, "It's difficult for the EV market to recover immediately, but we will broaden our scope through equipment engineering and make this year a turning point," adding, "We also reorganized the organization last year to improve internal efficiency."
People & Technology, a secondary battery equipment company, has moved to expand into materials. As the equipment market cooled, the strategy is to secure new sources of revenue.
People & Technology is focusing on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode materials and battery cells among materials. Last year it completed a plant in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, to produce both, and it is now conducting pilot production of the materials.
People & Technology executive director Seo Jeong-seok said, "We plan to complete certification in the first half of this year and begin full-scale production in the second half." The cathode material is undergoing sample testing with clients, and the battery cell is going through international certification procedures. The company said that once certification is completed, there is a high likelihood it will lead to actual orders.
It also said it is considering entering the solar cell field in the future. Seo said, "We are also targeting new markets beyond batteries," adding, "We are considering next-generation solar and solar cell equipment."
Another equipment corporation, Hana Technology, has moved to diversify its equipment lineup. Hana Technology had primarily supplied front-end process equipment to turnkey corporations that build battery plants and deliver them to clients, but orders fell as conditions worsened.
As work thinned out, the response it presented was "HNX." HNX is a stacking machine equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) that can detect abnormal signals in advance before problems arise in battery manufacturing equipment.
Hana Technology did not jump straight into equipment development. To survive the EV downturn, Hana Technology ventured into developing sulfide materials for solid-state batteries, but the effort struggled due to expense. In the end, Hana Technology decided to focus on its competitive area: equipment production.
NanoSilikhan Advanced Materials, a materials-focused corporation, is attempting to regain competitiveness by cutting prices. In the recent battery materials market, price competition has intensified due to low-price offensives by Chinese companies.
NanoSilikhan Advanced Materials President Park Seong-gyu said, "To lower prices, we came up with an idea in Jan. 2024 to avoid grinding raw materials," adding, "We have been building a plant based on this idea since Jul. last year, and it is expected to be completed around the third quarter of this year."
Experts met at the event cited a recovery in electric vehicle (EV) demand as key to the battery industry's rebound. While there are high expectations that robotics will become a new market for the battery industry as robot technology grows explosively, experts say the robot-related battery market is small compared with electric vehicles.
Seo said, "Considering battery usage per unit, it is not easy for the market to rebound without growth in the EV market. Compared with electric vehicles, the robot market, including humanoids, is a drop in the bucket," adding, "Only when EV demand recovers will the battery market improve."