Asahi Kasei Expands Coating Capacity for Lithium-Ion Battery Separators

Photo Credit: Asahi Kasei

Asahi Kasei is investing in additional equipment for coating Hipore lithium-ion battery (LIB) separators. Coating lines will be installed at the company’s existing LIB separator facilities in the United States, Japan and South Korea, with startup scheduled in succession from the first half of fiscal year 2026. Through the investment, the company aims to establish the capability to supply coated separators for batteries equivalent to 1.7 million electric vehicles.

Asahi Kasei supplies two types of Hipore wet-process LIB separators: a polyolefin microporous base film membrane and a coated membrane separator produced by applying ceramic and other coatings to the base film. As one of the company’s “10 Growth Gears” (GG10) businesses identified to lead the next phase of growth in the company's medium-term management plan for fiscal year 2024, the separator business is a focus of proactive investment for capacity expansion to meet the increase in demand for electric vehicle applications.

“Expanding Hipore operations globally to keep pace with the electric vehicle market is an important milestone for our separator business,” says Hiroyoshi Matsuyama, senior executive officer and president of environmental solutions strategic business unit at Asahi Kasei. “We are happy to support the growth of our customers abroad and, with the help of our established global locations, we can do that quickly by investing in existing infrastructure and then expanding further with new greenfield sites as needed to meet regional demand.”

Asahi Kasei will continue investing to build its LIB separator supply infrastructure for automotive applications to meet growing demand, especially in North America where expansion of electric vehicle production is forecasted. The expansion will raise the company's coating capacity for LIB separators to approximately 1.2 billion m²/year.

Asahi Kasei continues to study proactive investments, including the establishment of Hipore membrane manufacturing facilities to further improve its supply infrastructure for the North American and Japanese markets.