11-15-2010 Li-ion battery news

Tesla Wants To License EV Tech To Toyota, Others: CEO

TOKYO (Nikkei)--U.S. electric car start-up Tesla Motors Inc. is interested in licensing its battery and other EV driving technologies to Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) and others, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk told The Nikkei Friday in Tokyo.
Tesla is planning to mass-produce EVs at its plant in the U.S. state of California, which is located where New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.'s factory once stood. The joint venture between Toyota and General Motors Corp. is now defunct.
One of the first of Tesla's mass-produced cars will likely be the Model S sedan, due to be launched in the U.S. in mid-2012.
Unlike other companies' EVs, which use specially designed batteries, Tesla's offerings are equipped with several thousand cylinder-shaped general-purpose lithium ion batteries, which are typically found in notebook computers.
While major automakers are rushing to develop high-performance batteries for their EVs by teaming up with electrical machinery makers, the high cost of producing such batteries remains a major hurdle for bolstering the popularity of the green cars.
Tesla's technology based on general-purpose batteries has the potential to solve this problem. Rather than using it just for its own products, the company is now considering licensing it to other companies.
In fact, Tesla has already contacted tie-up partners Toyota and Daimler AG and asked them if they are interested in licensing its technologies, Musk said.
Tesla is also interested in joining hands with Toyota in the area of customer service, Musk said, adding that Tesla's cars can be serviced at Toyota facilities.
On Friday, Musk presented Toyota President Akio Toyoda with Tesla's Roadster 2.5 electric vehicle.
Pointing out that developing recharging facilities will be a major challenge for EVs, Toyoda said that one of the solutions may be to set up recharging systems at Toyota's roughly 4,800 dealerships nationwide.
(The Nikkei Nov. 13 morning edition)

A123 Systems Selected to Develop Battery Pack for New Chinese Electric

A123 will use its cells to develop a customized battery pack that it will provide to Advanced Traction Battery Systems Co. (ATBS), the joint venture established between A123 and SAIC Motor Co. Ltd., for production.

By aftermarketNews staff

Thursday, November 11, 2010
WATERTOWN, Mass. and SHANGHAI, China -- A123 Systems, a developer and manufacturer of advanced Nanophosphate lithium ion batteries and systems, has been selected to develop battery packs for a new 2012 model year electric passenger car from Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC), China’s largest automaker. Under the terms of the agreement, A123 will use its cells to develop a customized battery pack that it will provide to Advanced Traction Battery Systems Co. (ATBS), the joint venture established between A123 and SAIC Motor Co. Ltd., for production. This announcement accentuates the ongoing success of the A123/SAIC joint venture — the first to be established between a non-Chinese battery manufacturer and a leading Chinese automaker — and its focus on developing, manufacturing and selling complete vehicle traction battery systems in China, the largest and fastest growing automotive market in the world. In addition to this new zero-emission passenger car, A123 currently supplies battery technology to SAIC for several of its other electric drive-train vehicles in development, including the Roewe 750 hybrid electric sedan and the Roewe 550 plug-in hybrid electric sedan.

Battery maker A123 sees slower demand
Saturday, 13 Nov 2010

Reuters reported that A123 Systems which develops and builds advanced battery systems posted a deeper Q3 loss and warned that automakers were moving more slowly on electric car projects sending its shares tumbling. The Watertown, Massachusetts based company cautioned that an increase in sales from electric car related projects it had told investors to expect would be delayed by about half a year until the Q2 of 2011. Mr David Vieau CEO of A123 said that the battery pack for the 2012 model year vehicle will be developed by JV between the 2 companies and the cells will be shipped to China. A123 already has a contract to supply batteries to SAIC for a hybrid and a plug in hybrid vehicle. A123, which had its initial public offering in September 2009, posted a net loss of USD 43.7 million or 42 cents per share compared with a loss of USD 22.8 million a year earlier. Revenue rose 11% to USD 26.2 million. Operating expenses almost doubled to USD 41 million as the company incurred costs to open a battery plant in Livonia, Michigan that was also funded by USD 249 million grants from the US Department of Energy. The plant is part of a plan by A123 to double its lithium ion battery production capacity by the end of 2010. A123 has been named a battery supplier for BMW and plug in hybrid developer Fisker Automotive. Mr David Vieau said that the company has made progress in a development deal with a major automaker that he expected would lead to a production contract. The vehicle under development would be a pure EV powered by A123 batteries. A123 had previously forecast that Q4 2010 revenue would jump to around USD 45 million up from the average of USD 23 million in the previous Q3. He said that we said previously we really thought that the Q4 was when some of these new automotive programs would start to kick in. Based on the customer ramp up, it looks like that's going to shift to the Q2. So it's about a 6 month slowdown that we're having.

3 Reasons to Sell Tesla Motors
Travis Hoium
November 12, 2010

The market reacted very positively to Tesla Motors' (Nasdaq: TSLA) loss, which can be described not quite as bad as Wall Street expected. But there is still a lot of optimism priced into the stock, with a lot of dominos that have to fall just right to reach Tesla's lofty goals.
So why do I think the market has gotten ahead of itself? Here are the three biggest reasons why you should sell Tesla today.
Delays
Tesla is projecting its next vehicle the Model S to be available in mid-2012. There are high hopes for this model because it is a lower cost four-door sedan that will reach a wider audience. But product launches almost never go as planned. A123 Systems (Nasdaq: AONE) was crushed this week based largely on electric vehicle competitors delaying production. Competitor Fisker has delayed the Karma's debut, and Tesla's own Roadster was also delayed nearly a year because of a variety of issues. There isn't much you can count on in new product development, but a delayed launch is one thing I will bet on any day.
Competition
Tesla has been operating with virtually no competition to this point, but that's about to change. GM's Chevy Volt is hitting showrooms, Nissan's Leaf will be available next month, and the list goes on and on.
Tesla has arguably the most compelling vehicles in the electric car business. A relatively small number of initial buyers, however, will be spread over a growing number of manufacturers.
Value
Tesla is worth $2.7 billion and recently reported a quarterly loss of $34.9 million. The company isn't even expecting to report a profit until at least 2012, so there is a long wait for profitability.
A quick back of the napkin calculation shows just how far Tesla has to go. If we average Ford's (NYSE: F) 8.6 price-to-earnings ratio and Toyota's (NYSE: TM) 21.4 P/E ratio we get a pretty reasonable P/E of 15 to apply to Tesla.
To live up to a $2.7 billion market cap with a 15 P/E ratio, the company will eventually have to earn $180 million each year (before discounting). Tesla will barely reach half of that in revenue this year, so we're assuming a lot of growth and some pretty high margins on vehicles.
I hope Tesla is a wild success as a car company. I would love to own the stock, but I think investors are looking at this company through rose colored glasses right now. Leave your thoughts about Tesla in the comments section below.

The governors of Michigan and Georgia, in separate announcements made on Nov. 5, are welcoming investments by South Korean chemical companies that expand high-technology manufacturing in their states.

LG Chem will build a new electrolyte production plant in Holland, Mich., to supply its nearby $300 million lithium-ion battery cell facility, currently under construction. The battery facility received significant government incentives, including a $151 million federal grant for battery manufacturers and more than $100 million in state tax credits.
“We appreciate LG Chem CEO Peter Kim’s assertion that the company intends to make this key component in Michigan,” said Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement sends a strong signal about the market potential for electric vehicles and reaffirms LG Chem’s commitment to our state.”
The battery cells will be assembled into electric-car batteries by LG Chem’s North American subsidiary, Compact Power, in Troy, Mich. Compact Power will supply batteries for General Motors’ plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt and Ford Motor’s all-electric 2012 Ford Focus BEV.
In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue said a new facility to produce film for solar panels will open in Covington, an hour’s drive east of Atlanta. The plant will be built by SKC, a U.S. subsidiary of South Korea’s SK Group, a manufacturer of specialty polyester films.
Like the LG plant, the SKC project will be an expansion of an existing manufacturing campus. The state offered the company an $8.5 million incentive package for job creation. SKC’s $100 million investment is expected to create 120 jobs; the company says it will begin hiring for the 200,000-sq-ft plant in April 2011.
The governors aim to create a virtuous cycle of establishing high-tech manufacturing that in turn lures additional jobs and investment to fill out the supply chain, says Willy C. Shih, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. For component manufacturers, he says, “it makes sense to locate where the point of consumption is.”
But governments should be careful, Shih warns. “It’s very hard to get it right in terms of incentives and market uptake rate. Do you actually help, or are you amplifying a boom-and-bust cycle?”
Chemical & Engineering News

Controversial battery plant gets initial nod on annexation
Thursday, 11 November 2010

A once operational battery plant along U.S. Highway 441 is on the path to annexation by the City of Alachua. The 146.23-acre site broken up over three tax parcels got approval on first reading from the Alachua City Commission Monday. Although the battery manufacturing facility is considered by many to be in the City of Alachua, the one-time major employment center has never been within the city’s corporate limits. A concern among city leaders about contamination at the site has long been a major factor in keeping the property outside of the City of Alachua’s boundaries. About half of the nearly 150 acres is contaminated. City of Alachua Planner Brandon Stubbs said cleanup efforts on the site date back to the 1970s and still continues. The half of the property now known was Phoenix Commercial Park is said not to be contaminated, but is designated as a “Brownfield site” because of the perception of contamination. That designation lends itself to incentivizing use of the park by companies wishing to take advantage of the already industrialized site. When asked about pending environmental or legal issues associated with the site, Stubbs and City Attorney Marion Rush said the city would not be taking on the liability by annexing the property. Mayor Gib Coerper said he wants absolute confidence that annexing the former battery plant site will not lead to a liability for the city in future years. Meanwhile, Coerper also lauded the Hipp family who purchased and opened a part of the site as Phoenix Commercial Park. “The Hipp family has done a terrific job of with the Phoenix park,” he said.
General Electric (GE) opened the plant in1963. Years later in the late 1980s, it sold to Gates Energy Products. By 1993, Energizer Battery purchased the plant and property and added additional capabilities such as lithium ion battery cell manufacturing. Moltech Power Systems purchased the facility in 1999 but went bankrupt about two years later. That was the last major manufacturing the site has seen since much of the original battery production equipment was transferred to a Chinese company which purchased belly-up Moltech Power Systems. The Chinese company was blocked from transferring the $150 million lithium ion plant originally built by Energizer. The lithium ion manufacturing facility remains at the site today and has since been in use on a smaller scale. In its heyday, Energizer employed nearly 1,500 people at the site.
The annexation was passed in a 5-0 vote of the commission. A second and likely final public hearing on the annexation is set for the city’s Nov. 22 commission meeting.
Other annexations
Commissioners also gave the initial okay for annexation of 225.46 acres known as the Jeffords property. Located across from Santa Fe Ford along U.S. 441, the property is currently zoned as agriculture and would remain that way upon annexation. An application by 441, LLC to voluntarily annex 17.5 acres into the City of Alachua was also unanimously approved by the commission. The parcel is located along U.S. 441, northwest of the entrance to Turkey Creek. That property is also currently zoned Agriculture under the Alachua County zoning atlas.
All three annexations considered Monday are set to be reviewed at a second public hearing scheduled for the Nov. 22

Will BYD Be the World’s Biggest Car Maker? EVs By the Numbers
A cornucopia of interesting data points from The Networked EV conference.

A number of industry experts and executives gathered in San Francisco this week to discuss the future of electric cars and the grid at The Networked EV. Here are some of the more interesting data points:
2015: The year that China's BYD says it will become the largest car maker, by unit volumes, in China, according to Liam Li, senior business director of BYD America.
2025: The year that BYD wants to become the world's largest car maker. It sounds farfetched from this vantage point, but you have to admit the company has an interesting history. It was founded in 1995 as a lithium ion battery maker. In 2000, it started selling batteries to Motorola. In 2003, it entered the car market. By 2010, it had sold 1 million cars, the fastest ramp ever for a new car company in China. It already has plug-in hybrids, all-electric sedans and all-electric buses.
80 to 85 percent: The percentage of time that consumers will charge their cars at home, according to Jose A. Salazar, Senior Project Manager at the Advanced Technology, Field Technologies Group for Southern California Edison, which has been studying computer simulations on the issue. And that's in the long run. Over the next few years, the number will be closer to 100 percent, he told me later.
If Salazar is right, this could prove problematic for charging companies like Better Place or Coulomb Technologies that want to encourage customers to enter into subscription service contracts for EV charging services. If consumers buy the bulk of their power at home, will they really want to pay $20 a month for an occasional blast?
3: The number of payment options SCE will offer EV customers. Customers can get a separate meter for their EV, just add it to their bill, or join a time-of-use plan. They program has existed for years -- it was created for the EV1 and other electric cars ten years ago -- but is being revived. A calculator helps you decide which program best suits your needs.
5: The number of cities that will soon buy electric buses and high-speed charging stations from Proterra. The cities are Seattle, Reno, Pomona, Tallahassee and Fresno. The projects are underwritten by a $25 million grant from the Federal Transportation Agency.
Marc Gottschalk, chief business development officer, also told us to keep our eyes peeled for a foreign deal. Pomona already has a few Proterra buses and charging stations. An electric bus will likely never be a chick magnet, but considering that diesel buses get 2 miles per gallon, the new models could help substantially curb fuel consumption and particulate emissions.
$500 a kilowatt hour: The price that Coda Automotive, which will come out soon with an all-electric sedan, can get batteries for from its sister company Lio Energy Systems, according to Phil Gow, vice president of battery systems at Coda Automotive. (Phil also worked on the battery system for GM's EV1.
More: The number of cars that General Motors will make around the plug-in hybrid platform created for the Chevy Volt, according to Dave Barthmuss, Group Manager, Western Region, Environment & Energy Communications at GM. Next up might be a crossover-like vehicle. GM has shown prototypes of plug-in crossovers. Tesla Motors is eyeing the crossover/SUV market: a prototype of its Model X should show up next year.
3 pounds: The amount of copper in a charging station, according to John R. Bryan, CTO, Fleet Energy and Former Program Manager, V2G PHEV project, Xcel Energy. Security to keep thieves away will be needed.
145 grams: The amount of carbon dioxide, per mile, that gas cars will emit over worst-case-scenario electric cars, according to NREL stats from Bryan. A gas car with a 20 mile per gallon rating emits 465 grams of CO2 per mile. An electric car powered by coal generated 100 percent by coal generates 320 grams. 145 is the difference.
Bryan, of course, notes that this is a worst-case scenario. The U.S. only gets around 45 percent of its electricity from coal, so the reduction in emissions in real life will be higher.
$1,500 to $1,750: The amount of money that will be required per household to upgrade the grid in a region of 100,000 in the service territory of Pacific Gas & Electric if consumers don't agree to charge their cars during off-peak hours, according to Kevin Dasso, the senior director of smart grid at PG&E. The total bill, in other words, would be $150 million to $175 million.
"If you can convince them to charge off-peak, you could lower the need for upgrades quite substantially," he said. "We still have to make some investments, but they can be a lot lower if we are smart about it."
Here's how Dasso's estimates break down by region. In coastal regions with low air conditioning needs, PG&E would have to perform upgrades (i.e., install new and more transformers, etc.) nearly 50 percent of the time. Off-peak charging would reduce this figure to ten percent. In the whole Inland Empire, upgrades could be needed 10 percent to 60 percent of the time. Off-peak would lower it to zero.
A 7.2 kilowatt charger running at 240 volts is equal to 1.3 homes to a transformer, he added.
530,000: The number of EVs expected to be tooling around in PG&E's service territory by 2020, according to Dasso. The estimates range from 220,000 to 850,000.
50 percent: the percentage of the U.S. population that likely can't qualify for car loans, according to Phil Davis, Senior Manager, Solutions, Schneider Electric and a former car dealership owner. High prices will be a deterrent for many. Davis further added that the average U.S. car stays on the road seven to nine years, which really reduces the resale value.
11.55 million: The number of cars that will get sold in the U.S. in 2010, according to Brandon Mason, Global Powertrain Lead Analyst, U.S. Auto Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers. It will increase to 12.5 million by 2011.
By 2016, the number will rise to 15 million, but manufacturing capacity will be at 16.5 million.
34.1 miles per gallon: The "real" CAFE standard for 2016. The Department of Transportation has told car makers that they have to boost their cumulative/collective MPG rating to 35.5 miles per hour by 2016, but part of the gains can be from air conditioning. (Panasonic, for instance is coming out with an air conditioner powered by waste heat from the engine.) Thus, drivetrain engineers can aim for the 34.1 MPG mark.
62 MPG: the number being touted in Washington for the CAFE standard in 2025.
1.4% to 1.8%: The percentage of cars shipped in the U.S. that will be EVs or plug-in hybrids by 2016, according to Mason.

Ultra-Thin Gadget Batteries in the Works
Paper-thin power for your gadgets will soon be a reality.

Batteries may be the primary portable source preferred for our portable peripherals, but they're not what you'd call efficient. In fact, a significant percentage of a handheld gadget's weight is from its battery. NEC, a company known more for its monitors than alternative energy sources, has come up with a concept that plans to change everything. NEC has dubbed this latest project the ORB, or Organic Radical Battery. The latest prototype may not as paper-thin as the initial proof-of-concept they released five years ago, but at just over a quarter of an inch thick, it's still a lot leaner than most efficient current-generation power cells. The ORB can thank two things for its high power-to-weight ratio: its affordable carbon anodes, and its highly conductive nano-composite cathode. The latter is achieved by rendering an organic material into a gel, then impregnated with carbon materials. The one-two punch gives it a power output that's 40% higher than conventional batteries. It won't be replacing lithium-ions anytime soon, but at the very least the ORB can see future use in powering microcircuitry, implants, and tech-gear. Hey, it's better than using our own bodies as batteries, right? That's a robopocalypse waiting to happen.
[source: NEC via Engadget]

South Korean Firms Invest In U.S.
Cleantech: LG Chem and SKC expand high-tech manufacturing facilities
Melody Voith

The governors of Michigan and Georgia, in separate announcements made on Nov. 5, are welcoming investments by South Korean chemical companies that expand high-technology manufacturing in their states. LG Chem will build a new electrolyte production plant in Holland, Mich., to supply its nearby $300 million lithium-ion battery cell facility, currently under construction. The battery facility received significant government incentives, including a $151 million federal grant for battery manufacturers and more than $100 million in state tax credits.
“We appreciate LG Chem CEO Peter Kim’s assertion that the company intends to make this key component in Michigan,” said Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement sends a strong signal about the market potential for electric vehicles and reaffirms LG Chem’s commitment to our state.” The battery cells will be assembled into electric-car batteries by LG Chem’s North American subsidiary, Compact Power, in Troy, Mich. Compact Power will supply batteries for General Motors’ plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt and Ford Motor’s all-electric 2012 Ford Focus BEV.
In Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue said a new facility to produce film for solar panels will open in Covington, an hour’s drive east of Atlanta. The plant will be built by SKC, a U.S. subsidiary of South Korea’s SK Group, a manufacturer of specialty polyester films. Like the LG plant, the SKC project will be an expansion of an existing manufacturing campus. The state offered the company an $8.5 million incentive package for job creation. SKC’s $100 million investment is expected to create 120 jobs; the company says it will begin hiring for the 200,000-sq-ft plant in April 2011. The governors aim to create a virtuous cycle of establishing high-tech manufacturing that in turn lures additional jobs and investment to fill out the supply chain, says Willy C. Shih, professor of management practice at Harvard Business School. For component manufacturers, he says, “it makes sense to locate where the point of consumption is.” But governments should be careful, Shih warns. “It’s very hard to get it right in terms of incentives and market uptake rate. Do you actually help, or are you amplifying a boom-and-bust cycle?”

Powering the electric car revolution
LG Chem plans to increase capacity to about 60 million cells annually by 2013
November 15, 2010

OCHANG, North Chungcheong - The massive LG Chem electric vehicle battery plant and R&D facility in Daejeon makes clear that the company intends to maintain its position as the leader in electric vehicle batteries. LG Chem has the world’s largest facility that produces lithium-ion polymer batteries for electric vehicles and has signed supply contracts with major automotive companies, including General Motors and Ford. With the 57,000 square meter (613,543 square feet) EV battery production facility in Ochang, LG’s annual capacity of 8.5 million cells is the world’s first and largest production line. LG said that this is only the beginning as they are in the process of building a 67,000 square-meter (721,182 square feet) plant next to the first one. LG said it will invest 1 trillion won ($886.5 million) in the Ochang facility by 2013, and $300 million in its Holland plant in Michigan, as it plans to increase overall capacity ten-fold to about 80 million cells annually. That includes 60 million in Korea and 20 million in Michigan. The Ochang production facility is one of the most technologically advanced and automated in the world.
“The reason we were able to sign deals with companies like GM, Ford, Volvo, and Renault, is we copy nobody’s technology, but lead the market with our own,” said Kim Myung-hwan, senior vice president of LG Chem’s Battery Research & Development. “Other companies and ventures may come up with wonderful products in their labs, but when it comes to mass production, it will be a whole different story as things will require a much higher output and [level of] safety,” he added.
Kim said that with over 10 years of experience in EV batteries, LG holds the world’s leading technologies, the best materials, the safest products and sees no competitors on the horizon. LG currently holds eight deals with leading automakers around the world. The company’s EV battery business is currently aiming for 1 trillion won in sales by 2013 and 3 trillion won by 2015. The company’s position in the industry is the result of its R&D department’s work over the last decade.
When Japanese companies were showing strength in nickel hydride batteries, LG focused on lithium-ion batteries and made further developments concentrating on EV batteries. Such developments have allowed the company to improve its production efficiency by 30 percent compared to competitors. Also, being a chemical company with employees from various backgrounds and fields of study, LG said it is able to make better products with its own technology.
A good example of its technological prowess is its safety-reinforced separator technology, or SRS, which separates the cathode and the anode of the battery to allow effective flow of power. In an experiment which took place at LG Chem’s Research Park, when exposed to a temperature of 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) for over 1 minute, regular batteries deformed and turned black, but LG’s batteries with the SRS technology maintained their original form. “Our EV battery, which is protected by our SRS technology that we hold the patent to, is not a can type, but a pouch type, giving no dangers to explosions, and also holds a longer battery life,” said Kim. “Our competitors in and out of the country are using our SRS technology, thinking that we would not know about this, but such infringements will become an issue.” LG’s SRS technology protects the battery in a layer of nano-scale ceramic particles and polyolefin film, since the battery can explode or show poor performance if the separator becomes torn. LG said at an international forum about two years ago that when it first came up with the idea, everyone was wondering why the company would want to spend more money on such a thing. However, LG stated that safety was one of its most important issues, along with quality and performance. The company also holds a unique technology called stack and folding, which stacks the cathode, separator and anode and folds into a tight shape, preventing any kind of performance loss or deformations that competitors with winding methods showed. “As a chemical company, we have the strength of producing our own material and lower costs in production, meaning that we have safety, performance, better price and competitive power, having everything that an EV battery should have,” said Kim. The company said that it is currently in the process of developing technology that will allow a vehicle’s range to triple and battery price to fall to one third of what it is now. Confident in all aspects, LG is focusing on the competition for a better battery. Local competitor SB LiMotive, which is a joint venture between Samsung SDI and Bosch, started things off by signing deals with BMW and Delphi, and recently announced a deal with Chrysler to power the Fiat. But SK Energy, who also claim to be in competition with LG and said they would announce surprising deals soon, has not been able to follow through with its promise. Its most recent deal to power Hyundai Motor’s BlueOn does not involve mass production, which the Volt and Focus offer in the market. Kim said, rival firms have taken to applying the method despite their earlier doubts about the need for such a device.
Kim also said that a rival company has even announced that they developed the technology independently. Kim did not mention any company by name but said that practically all lithium ion polymer battery makers are involved. In addition, Kim said that LG Chem’s stack and folding technology could also lead to legal disputes. The technique stacks the anode, separator and cathode before folding them instead of the conventional winding method that rolls the materials together. The news conference was held while the company opened its plant in Ochang Scientific Industrial Complex in North Chungcheong Province to the media for the first time on Friday.
The plant, the works on which began last July, went into operation in June. The plant is capable of producing 8.5 million cells on an annual basis, which is sufficient to power 400,000 Avante LPi hybrid vehicles. The company is currently expanding the plant’s production line, and plans to inject 1 trillion won ($886 million) by 2013 to raise the Ochang plant’s production capacity to 60 million cells. Including the company’s overseas production facilities, the company will be able to produce 80 million cells on an annual basis. By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldm.com)