SEOUL, January 30 (AJP) - Samsung SDI has signed a large battery supply contract in the United States for energy storage systems, the company said on Friday.
Samsung SDI said details of the contract, including its value and duration, will remain confidential until Jan. 1, 2030. The counterparty was not also disclosed, but industry officials widely view Tesla as the leading candidate.
Tesla has been actively securing battery supplies for ESS, including a 6 trillion won contract signed in July with LG Energy Solution for lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, batteries.
The sources said the size and confidentiality period suggest the deal could be worth trillions of won.
Samsung SDI said its U.S. unit, Samsung SDI America, signed the agreement with a U.S. customer. The company is increasingly focusing on ESS sales to help offset a temporary slowdown in electric-vehicle demand.
Market attention has centered on Tesla, which has been diversifying its battery supply chain as demand grows for its large-scale ESS product, the Megapack. In November, speculation emerged that Samsung SDI would supply Tesla with about 10 gigawatt-hours of batteries annually for three years.
At the time, Samsung SDI said it was in talks but had not finalized a deal. Roughly two months later, the company confirmed it had signed a supply contract, without naming the customer.
The agreement comes as the industry prepares for what some analysts have described as an “AI power shock.” Data centers running generative AI services such as ChatGPT require stable, round-the-clock electricity, increasing reliance on ESS to store power from intermittent renewable sources such as solar and wind.
Samsung SDI has traditionally focused on high-output, high-energy-density nickel-cobalt-aluminum batteries, but has been expanding into lower-cost LFP batteries as part of its technology strategy. The company has begun operating an ESS production line at StarPlus Energy, its joint venture plant with Stellantis, and plans to expand U.S. ESS battery production capacity to about 30 gigawatt-hours a year by the end of this year.
It is also moving to convert a production line to manufacture LFP batteries for ESS, with operations targeted by year’s end.
Analysts said the new order could help support Samsung SDI’s profitability as electric-vehicle demand growth slows, with the rapidly expanding North American ESS market emerging as a new source of cash flow. Research firm SNE Research forecasts the region’s ESS market will grow from 55 gigawatt-hours in 2023 to 181 gigawatt-hours in 2035.
A Samsung SDI official declined to confirm the customer’s identity but said demand for grid-scale ESS is rising sharply. “With the arrival of the AI era, we will strengthen order-winning efforts centered on North America and diversify our lineup, including LFP, to secure market leadership,” the official said.
* This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.
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Seon Jae-kwan
seon@economidaily.com
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