South Korean giants that produce batteries for world electric car companies faced the threat of a shortage of qualified frames, transfers Reuters.
LG Energy Solution, SK ON and Samsung SDI Co Ltd, which control the third of the global battery market for electric vehicles, said that they all struggle with an acute lack of competent specialists in research and engineering. Three main South Korean giants supply global brands such as Tesla, Volkswagen and Ford Motor.
Over the past five years, the global battery market has doubled. Battery manufacturers noted that the demand for them is growing. At the same time, they cannot find a sufficient number of specialists with the preparation required for the development of the latest technologies, such as solid-state batteries. According to the Korean Battery Manufacturers Association, companies lack almost 3 thousand employees with a degree in areas such as “research” and “design”. Currently, in South Korean companies, about 19 thousand personnel.
To solve the problem, LG Energy Solution has already announced plans to open a new factory in the prestigious University of Korean with guaranteed employment for graduates. At the same time, the company is also trying to find specialists in the United States, arranging special events for finding and hiring new frames.
The crisis in South Korea reflects the growing lack of talents in the global battery market, which, according to the forecasts of the IHS Markit consulting company, will grow three times (up to 90 billion dollars). The planning group of the European Battery Alliance stated that the market also needs retraining and professional development of employees, because by 2025 the industry will require 800 thousand workers. “The demand for talents in the batteries industry exceeds the offer, and manufacturers seek to receive this small group of people who can work with this technology,” said Samsung’s Securities Analyst Cho Hyun Rul.
“The lack of labor in the battery industry has already become a global problem, since many companies begin to expand their capacities,” the main analyst IHS Markit Richard Kim notes. At the same time, the demand for electric vehicles continues to grow. According to the researchers, by 2040, there will be at least two thirds of all car market sales in the world, and residents of European countries have already begun to gradually refuse to buy ordinary cars with gasoline engines.