Producer
ILJIN Materials Co., Ltd.
South Korean specialty materials company (KRX: 020150, HQ Anyang, Gyeonggi-do; ILJIN Group subsidiary); Korea's largest battery copper foil manufacturer, producing electrolytic copper foil at 6-12µm for Li-ion battery anode current collectors. ILJIN Materials operates the IKBC (ILJIN Korea Battery Copper) brand for Samsung SDI, LG Energy Solution, and SK On — the three Korean battery giants that collectively manufacture cells for BMW, Volkswagen, GM, Ford, and Stellantis EVs. ILJIN Materials also has copper foil production in Malaysia (ILJIN Malaysia) for Southeast Asian supply chain diversification. ILJIN Group is a Korean conglomerate spanning ball bearings (automotive), diamond tools (construction), and copper foil — the same Korean conglomerate that makes the bearings in your car's wheel hub also makes the copper foil in its battery. ILJIN Materials was the first Korean company to commercialize battery-grade electrolytic copper foil.
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Battery Copper Foil (ILJIN Materials)
55%Ball Bearings (ILJIN Bearing / ILJIN USA)
25%Diamond Tools (ILJIN Diamond)
12%Specialty Materials & Other
8%
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Did you know2024
ILJIN Group is a Korean conglomerate whose business units sit across two completely different parts of the same electric vehicle: ILJIN Bearing makes the wheel hub bearing that physically connects the EV's wheel to its suspension and transmits driving force to the road; ILJIN Materials makes the 6µm copper foil that serves as the anode current collector in the EV's battery cell. A single Korean industrial group therefore supplies both the mechanical drivetrain interface and the electrochemical energy storage component of an electric vehicle simultaneously. Neither the automotive bearing industry nor the battery materials industry typically tracks this convergence — but the ILJIN Group bearing that carries the BMW i4's wheel load and the ILJIN Materials copper foil in Samsung SDI's battery cell powering it both trace to the same Anyang, Gyeonggi-do corporate parent.
ILJIN Group ↗Origin2023
ILJIN Group was founded in South Korea in 1967 as a bearing manufacturer serving the Korean automotive and industrial sectors. The group expanded through the 1970s-80s into diamond tools (using synthetic diamond for construction and industrial cutting applications) and later into specialty copper foil production. ILJIN Materials became the first Korean manufacturer to commercialize battery-grade electrolytic copper foil in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Samsung and LG were building their lithium battery businesses. The copper foil business and the bearing business developed in parallel under the same Anyang-based ILJIN Group holding structure — industrial precision manufacturing (bearings for automotive chassis) and electronic precision manufacturing (copper foil for batteries) sharing Korean manufacturing culture and capital.
ILJIN Materials Co., Ltd. ↗