Aju Business Daily

SEOUL -- In an effort to preemptively respond to changes in the vehicle parts market, SK Global Chemical will work with South Korea's steel group POSCO to develop light and hard steel and plastic composite materials for electric vehicles and future mobility.

"We will prepare for the future era of eco-friendly vehicles by co-developing not only existing steel-based vehicle materials but also other materials such as plastic." POSCO's steel sector head Kim Hak-dong. The two companies agreed to develop composite materials that can be applied to the production of battery packs for electric vehicles as well as plastic materials.

"We are going to strengthen R&D cooperation with POSCO in various fields starting with the development of lightweight materials for vehicles," said SK Global Chemical CEO Na Kyung-soo. SK Global Chemical, which is a unit of SK Innovation, has developed lightweight composite materials for vehicles. In 2019, the chemical company agreed to provide its carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite material as the engine hood of Hyundai Motor's i30N Project C, a light model available in the European market.

CFRP has been used for airplanes, tennis rackets, fishing rods, and others because they are lightweight and mechanically very strong. The chemical company described Skyflex as the future of lightweight automobiles as it facilitates more accurate molding than other materials, making it easier to build a streamlined shape to reduce air resistance.