KUCHING: South Korea’s Iljin Materials Co Ltd will significantly raise the production of electfoil (electrodeposited copper foil) with the commissioning of its first overseas manufacturing facilities at Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone here.
The US$400mil Kuching plant (phase 1) has a production capacity of 10,000 tonnes per year of electfoil, a thin copper foil with a thickness of 10 micrometres or less.
Electfoil is a core material for a current collector that forms cathode in an electric car battery.
With the production of the Kuching plant, Iljin Materials’ annual electfoil output will jump to 25,000 tonnes from 15,000 tonnes per year or up by nearly 70%.
Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg launched the plant, which was built within 12 months, last Thursday.
Iljin Materials is expanding and is now proceeding to build its phase 2 and 3 of the Kuching plant to boost production, according to state Industrial and Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
Awang Tengah is instrumental to convince Iljin Materials to choose Kuching for its first overseas manufacturing plant from other identified locations in Peninsular Malaysia.
The company has decided to increase its elecfoil production to meet the rising demand as the electric car and energy storage system markets have been rapidly growing.
Iljin Materials has chosen Malaysia for the location of a new electfoil factory because the country offers easy access to overseas markets, where its major customers like Samsung SDI and LG Chem, have their offshore EV battery plants.
Group chairman Huh Chin Kyu said Iljin began development of electfoil, a core material essential for the development of electronic and information technology industries, in 1978.
He said the company succeeded in mass production of elecfoil for the first time in South Korea in 1987.
“I am confident that our Kuching factory will provide a great boost to Sarawak economy,” added Huh.
Johari said with the operation of Iljin Materials plant, the exports from Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone would get a boost from RM4.6bil in 2018. Last year’s export value from the park was 43% higher than RM3.2bil in 2017.
The park is home to multinational firms mainly from US, Japan, Europe and China.
“The culmulative investments by these companies have exceeded RM12bil. The annual salaries paid to the workforce in Sama Jaya alone stood at RM460mil in 2018.
“This has created multiplier effects to our local economy in the demand for food, housing, transportation, retail and entertainment,” he added.
Johari said these companies employed some 11,800 people, 98.9% of them are locals, and about 10% of them engineers.
He said at least two multinationals operating in Sama Jaya were currently embarking on programmes to adopt Industry 4.0 for their operations. They are China’s LONGI, which is a solar panel manufacturer, and X-Fab,an analogue/mixed signal semiconductor foundry.
“Soon Sama Jaya will have a digital village and,possibly, a data centre as part of Sarawak’s digital economy platform.”
The proposed RM27mil digital village project is underway for scheduled completion in 18 months.
The village is aimed to further expand the Sarawak Multimedia Authority’s established startups by imbuing them with cutting-edge technologies, latest research and up-to-date digital skills.
As a precursor to the development of the digital village, Sarawak has set up digital innovation hubs in Kuching, Miri and Bintulu.
Johari urged local manufacturers to employ robotics and automation in their operations, saying that they must move towards smart manufacturing to stay competitive in the increasingly changing business environment.
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