According to several media reports at home and abroad, South Korea large battery manufacturers are eager to cultivate talents.

On January 6, relevant reports showed that Samsung SDI planned to cooperate with chengjunguan University in 2026and set up a new "battery engineering department" South Korea for the first time to cultivate battery professionals ".

The department plans to select 30 students every year, systematically educate the whole process from battery materials to large parts manufacturing, and give graduates the priority to Enter Samsung SDI.

It is reported that before that, in 2021, Samsung SDI began to open six science and engineering universities, including Seoul University, with master's degree and doctor's degree as the target. Battery lectures, and plans to provide 700 students with scholarships and internship opportunities in the next 10 years.

This cooperation with chengjunguan university means that Samsung SDI will start to train professionals in the battery field from an earlier undergraduate stage.

01 LG New Energy/SK On early action

the battery dispute is essentially a competition for talents, which South Korea three major points.Battery companies have already realized it.

It is understood that in addition to Samsung SDI, the other two battery giants have also begun to accumulate talents.

In terms of LG new energy, he once went directly to the US market to "grab talents". In May 2024, LG New Energy held a "battery technology conference" in New York, USA, attracting about 40 masters and doctoral students from universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to participate in the recruitment.

Relevant information shows that these talents attracted by LG new energy will help LG New Energy complete the demand for expanding its factories in the United States.

At present, LG new energy has deployed 8 bases in the United States, with the planned total capacity exceeding 350GWh. Two independent battery factories are located in Holland, Michigan, USA and Arizona, USA. In June, 2024, the battery production line of Arizona factory energy storage system (ESS) was suspended.

The other six are joint-venture battery factories, and the joint-venture car companies are Hyundai Motor, Honda Motor, Stellantis, and General Motors. Among them, there are three joint venture factories with GM, which are respectively arranged in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan, and the construction of the Michigan factory has also been terminated.

Although capacity construction slowed down, the expansion speed of LG new energy in the US market should not be underestimated. In 2024 alone, LG New Energy won orders from multiple car companies. Including the battery supply agreement signed with Riviera in November, which will be supplied in total.67GWh's 4695 cylindrical battery; In October, Ford signed a battery supply contract for electric vehicles, which will provide Ford with large commercial battery for cars with a total scale of 109GWh.

In SK On, its CEO Li Xixi has been "shaking people" in person many times ". It is understood that Li Xixi took office at the end of 2023 and was regarded as the chief of the fire brigade of SK On. In the middle of 2024, he repeatedly put forward measures such as "freezing salary and reducing expenditure, to alleviate the emergency faced by SK On.

Also in 2024, Li Xixi went to South Korea colleges and universities for many times to Rob talents. In the first half of 2024, Li Xixi first visited Seoul University to personally introduce the growth of battery industry to students. In December, he went to Gaoli University, a famous private school in South Korea to teach in person and preach to about 100 students.

Judging from the actions of the three major battery giants in South Korea, talent reserve will become the most powerful competition in the new energy battery industry.

02 pressure from Chinese enterprises

in response to the move of "robbing people" by the three major battery giants in South Korea, Japanese local media commented that the reason behind the move was the rise of Chinese enterprises.

This is exactly the case. In the field of power batteries, the share of Chinese enterprises is continuously expanding. On the contrary, the share of South Korea enterprises is continuously compressed.

according to the latest global power battery installed capacity data in the market, from January to November, 2024, the global power battery installed capacity reached 785.6GWh, a year-on-year increase of 26.4 percent, and the market share of the top ten enterprises reached more than 89 percent. Among the top 10 enterprises, Chinese enterprises still occupy 6 seats, namely Ningde era, BYD, Sinochem airlines, Guoxuan Gaoke, yiweilieng and Sunwoda.

From the perspective of market share, the market share of 6 battery enterprises in China reached 65.5 percent, which further increased year-on-year; The market share of the three major battery enterprises in South Korea was 19.8 percent, down 3.5 percent age points from the same period last year; panasonic, Japan, is the only one of the top ten companies with negative growth in installed capacity, with a year-on-year decline of and a market share of 4.0%.

Although the installed capacity of the three major battery enterprises continued to increase in South Korea, the year-on-year growth was relatively small. For example, in the same period, the installed capacity of Ningde era increased by, BYD increased by, while LG new energy only increased by 6.9%,SK On increased by 11.8%, and Samsung SDI increased by the least, only 0.1%.

In terms of sub-market, among China's largest new energy market, Japanese and Korean enterprises are withdrawing from the list of mainstream battery enterprises and dropping out of the top 10 list; While Japanese and Korean enterprises mainly focus on European and American markets, they are also opening their arms to Chinese enterprises, which makes the situation of Japanese and Korean enterprises more difficult.

Starting point lithium battery believes that the main reasons for the gradual gap between Chinese battery enterprises and Japanese and Korean enterprises are: first, the support and guidance of national policies vigorously support the development of China's battery industry; Second, the perfection degree and supporting ability of the industrial chain rank first in the world; Third, the continuous innovation and maturity of technology, such as the leading lithium iron phosphate battery technology and sodium ion battery technology. Finally, the most fundamental and core reason lies in the cultivation and attention of talents.

03 the core of innovation comes from talents

the importance of talents to the battery industry has long been "decided" by Zeng Luqun, CEO of Ningde era ".

This year, in a video interview hosted by Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norwegian sovereign fund, Zeng Yuqun explained that "European battery companies cannot produce good battery products.

He said that European battery companies have problems in (battery) design. Secondly, the process is wrong. Finally, their equipment also has problems. In this case, the production scale cannot be expanded.

At the same time, it is pointed out that if the United States and Germany want to catch up with or even surpass China in the battery field, they may have to start with education. For example, there are still many universities engaged in electrochemical research in China, but related majors are not popular in Europe and America, which is the reason why China has a large number of talents in the battery industry.

Batteries are actually an innovative industry, and talents are the main body of innovation. Zeng Yuqun said that innovation will accelerate when more money and manpower are invested to seek innovation.

According to statistics, at present, China has set up energy sources worldwide.As of the first half of 2024, more than 60 universities have set up energy and chemical engineering majors, including Dalian University of Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, South China University of Technology, Beijing University of Technology, harbin Institute of Technology, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), Zhejiang University of Technology, etc.

In addition, more than 20 universities such as Beijing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Harbin Engineering University have set up and power lithium batteries, perovskite batteries, battery thermal theory research, new membrane materials, major in capacitor energy storage, lithium battery materials, lithium sulphur battery and other related fields.

Compared with the first new "battery engineering department" in South Korea, China is indeed at the forefront. It can be predicted that the continuous "Talent Delivery" will help China continue to be at the forefront of the industry in the field of new energy and lead the development of the industry.