SK On, the world's fourth-largest battery maker, is in crisis

SK On, the world's fourth-largest battery manufacturer, recently said that the company is facing a serious crisis as downstream customers are struggling to cope with the downturn in the European and American electric vehicle markets. Since becoming independent from the SK Group in 2021, SK On has suffered losses for ten consecutive quarters. In the first quarter of this year, SK On's losses reached 331.5 billion won (about 1.7 billion yuan), a significant increase from 18.6 billion won (about 97 million yuan) in the fourth quarter of last year. SK On's sales were also affected, reaching 1.68 trillion won (about 8.8 billion yuan) in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year decrease of 49%. In response to this predicament, SK On CEO Lee Seok-hee released a series of cost-saving and operational improvement measures.