CEO Lee Yong-wook of SK On said, "To survive in a fiercely competitive market, we must add product competitiveness to cost competitiveness and build order-winning competitiveness," and emphasized, "It is important to create a structure in which cost, product, and order competitiveness form a virtuous cycle."
According to SK On on the 19th, the CEO stated accordingly at the 2025 CEO Recognition awards ceremony held the previous day at SK On's Gwanhun Campus in Jongno District, Seoul.
CEO Recognition is an official awards program operated since 2023 to boost employees' pride and share outstanding achievements companywide. This year's event was attended by more than 100 people, including CEO Lee Yong-wook and key executives and employees, and was also streamed live online.
This year's top 10 merits included maximizing productivity at the SKBA plant in Georgia, United States; improving the utilization rate at the SKBM Komarom Plant 2 in Hungary; transitioning to AI-based intelligent manufacturing; and signing a large energy storage system (ESS) supply contract in the United States.
The Georgia plant project, selected as the top merit, is a case of significantly raising production efficiency in line with rising production demand in the United States. Centered on a task force (TF) in areas such as technology and production, it addressed initial Production yield issues on new lines and quickly lifted the utilization rate to over 95%.
Hungary's Komarom Plant 2 also raised its utilization rate to about 90% by streamlining processes, including improving equipment speed. It further strengthened manufacturing competitiveness by introducing an automatic parameter control (APC) system using AI, a vision AI-based automatic decision check (ADC), and a predictive maintenance system (EWS).
In Sept., the company signed a 1 GWh (gigawatt-hour) ESS supply contract with Flatiron Energy Development, a U.S. renewable energy corporations, and the achievement was recognized as laying the groundwork for entering the global ESS market.
The CEO encouraged employees, saying, "Despite a challenging business environment this year, we achieved meaningful results through cooperation and communication," and added, "Next year also looks to be challenging, but we will be able to overcome it, drawing on the experience we have built together in the field."