Japanese chemical giant Toray Industries Inc. will form a joint venture in Hungary with South Korea's LG Chem Ltd. to make battery separator films for automotive lithium-ion batteries.

The Tokyo-based firm sealed the joint venture deal with the Seoul-based battery material company via an online signing ceremony on Wednesday.

Under the agreement, LG Chem will invest $375 million in Toray Industries Hungary Kft., a fully owned Toray subsidiary engaged in production and sales of battery separator films, and Toray and LG Chem will turn the subsidiary into an equally owned joint venture in the first half of next year.

The joint venture, LG Toray Hungary Battery Separator Kft., will beef up substrate production facilities and install coating equipment to manufacture battery separator films for automotive lithium-ion batteries to meet demand for electric vehicles in Europe.

With the $375 million investment and additional investments, the joint venture aims to achieve an annual production capacity of more than 800 million square meters of separator by 2028.

Toray will sell 20 percent of its stake in the joint venture to LG Chem after 30 months to allow LG Chem to run the Hungarian joint venture. (NNA/Kyodo)

==Kyodo

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