The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Korean companies reach deal saving Ga. battery plant

Factory in Commerce could lead to creation of 2,600 full-time jobs.

- By Andy Peters, Tia Mitchell and Greg Bluestein

The South Korean company behind one of the biggest economic developmen­t projects in state history has the green light to keep going.

SK Innovation, which is building a $2.6 billion factory near Commerce to make electric vehicle batteries, reached a settlement on Saturday with a rival that had accused it of stealing trade secrets, according to people familiar with the matter.

A recent ruling in favor of the rival, LG Energy Solution, had threatened to torpedo the factory in Jackson County before it even opened.

The settlement allows SK to operate the plant, according to people familiar with the matter. But final details were still being hammered out Sat

urday, according to one person familiar with the talks.

SK is expected to eventually create at least 2,600 full-time jobs at the plant, located about 45 minutes northeast of Atlanta along Interstate 85. It has agreements to supply lithium-ion batteries to Ford and Volkswagen for electric vehicles those companies plan to manufactur­e.

Terms of the settlement were not immediatel­y available Saturday. Representa­tives from SK and LG declined to comment.

LG had argued that SK stole its trade secrets by hiring about 100 of its employees, including engineers and marketing executives.

In February, the U.S. Internatio­nal Trade Commission ruled in favor of LG that SK stole trade secrets. It ruled SK could only make batteries for Ford for four years and Volkswagen for two years. After that it banned SK from importing components needed for making batteries for 10 years. It also scolded SK in its full opinion, issued in March, for destroying documents.

After the commission’s ruling, both sides launched aggressive campaigns to lobby President Joe Biden to either overrule the commission, as SK had argued, or to uphold its ruling, as LG preferred. Gov. Brian Kemp also lobbied Biden to reject the ruling, saying it threatened Georgia’s economy.

Biden had been expected to issue a decision within the coming days. If he didn’t overturn the ruling, SK was expected to appeal the decision to a federal court. If he overturned the ruling, LG likely would have revived a federal lawsuit in Delaware that addresses the same issues.

Georgia handed over a huge package of economic incentives to SK to win the project. The state provided grants, free land and other incentives that totaled about $300 million.

Biden, meanwhile, has made it a policy priority to expand the use of electric vehicles in the U.S. as part of a bid to combat climate change.

SK hired former U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates to argue that Biden should overturn the ruling because if the plant were to close, it would allow China to extend its global market share dominance in manufactur­ing of electric vehicle batteries.

LG had argued that it could easily add capacity to its existing network of factories in the U.S., including facilities in Michigan and Ohio, to build the same number of batteries as SK had planned.

In addition to the trade secrets dispute, immigratio­n authoritie­s have conducted two rounds of arrests of illegal Korean workers at the plant. SK blamed constructi­on firms for the illegal hirings.

 ?? HYOSUB SHIN/HYOSUB.SHIN@AJC.COM ?? SK Innovation is in the process of building a $2.6 billion factory in Commerce that would eventually employ 2,600 full-time workers to manufactur­e batteries for use in electric vehicles. A dispute with a rival South Korean company threatened to block the project.
HYOSUB SHIN/HYOSUB.SHIN@AJC.COM SK Innovation is in the process of building a $2.6 billion factory in Commerce that would eventually employ 2,600 full-time workers to manufactur­e batteries for use in electric vehicles. A dispute with a rival South Korean company threatened to block the project.

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