Germany has secured two major foreign direct investment (FDI) deals from two South Korean companies; one from battery manufacturer SungEel HiTech and electronics giant Samsung, and another from LG Chem, a subsidiary of LG.

According to German media outlet mdr.de, SungEel HiTech and Samsung plan to build a €45m (64.28bn won) facility in Gera, a city in the German state of Thuringia.

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The new 60,000m² factory will create 100 jobs and is expected to dismantle, crush and dry 20,000 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries each year, corresponding to 60,000 electric cars. The raw materials resulting from the dismantling process will be used to develop new batteries.

The project was approved with a narrow majority by the Gera City Council on 7 September. Construction will begin in March 2024, with the new facility expected to begin operation in early 2025.

In a separate move, South Korea-based chemical company LG Chem opened its European Customer Solution Centre (CS Centre) in Frankfurt in mid-September, the Korea Economic Daily reports.

The CS Centre, valued at $37.6m (€35.1m), will cover a floor area of 7,400m² and provide “comprehensive technical solutions” such as product development, quality improvement and productivity enhancement for customer companies and partners.

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Germany has been at the forefront of investment news lately, with big FDI projects announced nationwide despite interest rates in the euro area remaining high and Germany’s economy spluttering.

In August, UK real-estate developer Verdion announced plans to develop a €100m (£86.7m) industrial and logistics park near the country’s capital, Berlin.

Less than a week later, in September, London-based data centre provider Virtus said it would open a €3bn mega-campus project in Germany to help address the growing demands of hyperscale, government and enterprise customers.