Tesla Battery Supplier LG Chem Expects Revenue To More Than Double At $25.3B In 5 Years

LG Chem Ltd LGCLF expects its business to double in size by 2025, driven by ever-increasing penetration of the electric vehicle industry, CEO Hak Cheol Shin said in an interview with Bloomberg Thursday.

What Happened

The South Korean company’s revenue is expected to reach $11 billion this year, and could shoot up to $25.3 billion by 2025, according to Shin.

“The global electric vehicle industry itself is growing fast, but the penetration rate is about 3% now,” the CEO said. “The rate will be about 10% in 2025.”

Shin added that the company is in a position to deliver all orders from customers despite the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Why It Matters

LG Chem emerged as the largest battery supplier in the first half of 2020 with its sales growth soaring 83% to 10.5 gigawatt-hours, according to SNE Research.

The battery firm benefitted from the growing popularity of Tesla Inc.'s TSLA Model 3 vehicles in China as well as firm European demand for EVs.

European governments are using virus recovery funds to boost EV sales, which is helping the Korean firm, along with increase in sales of new models from the continent's automakers like Volkswagen AG VLKAF, SNE Research noted, as per Bloomberg. 

Yuanta Securities Korea Co. analyst Hwang Kyu-Won pointed out that that the scale of orders from Tesla will be an important factor for LG Chem's growth going forward, but that the battery maker has "diversified customers" and can benefit from growth of other EV companies as well.

LG Chem is helping Tesla grow its battery production capacity in South Korea.