SKC, which handles the materials business at SK Group, is implementing a voluntary resignation program.
According to industry sources on the 16th, SKC will accept applications for voluntary resignation from all employees except those hired less than a year ago from that day through the 20th. Those who take the voluntary resignation will receive 50% of their annual salary as severance pay. It is the first time in 10 years since 2016 that SKC has carried out a voluntary resignation program.
SKC traces its roots to Sunkyung Chemical, a corporations founded in 1976, and changed its name to SKC in 1987. Its main business areas include films, chemicals, and materials, including developing Korea's first polyester film in 1977. In 2019, it acquired KCFT, a copper foil company for electric vehicle batteries, changed the name to SK nexilis, and in the early 2020s built copper foil production plants in Malaysia and Poland. In 2021, it also decided to invest in the silicon anode materials business.
SKC operates businesses including chemicals producing propylene oxide (PO) and styrene monomer (SM) (SK picglobal), secondary battery materials (SK nexilis), and semiconductor materials and components (SK enpulse, Absolics).
However, results are sluggish due to simultaneous downturns in its core businesses of petrochemicals and secondary batteries. As a result, in 2024 SKC decided to sell SK nexilis's thin-film business, among other steps, and is facing management difficulties. On a consolidation basis, SKC's revenue last year was 1.84 trillion won, up 6.9% from a year earlier. However, its operating loss widened 10.6% to 305 billion won.