Beshear eyes KY office in South Korea as BlueOval SK battery plant construction continues

Anyone traveling along Interstate 65 in Hardin County has almost certainly seen the construction underway at the BlueOval SK megasite just off the highway.

After all, as Gov. Andy Beshear often touts, the Glendale campus will soon be home to the “two largest battery plants on planet Earth,” so they’re hard to miss.

The $5.8 billion project, the largest in Kentucky history, is a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and South Korean partner SK On, and is expected to employ 5,000 people once it’s fully up and running.

There was some concern in late October when Ford announced it would delay the start of operations at the second plant, but BlueOval SK officials say that construction “remains on schedule” for both plants, and production will begin at the first plan in 2025 as planned.

According to BlueOval SK, construction crews have:

• Moved more than 6.8 million cubic yards of dirt, enough to fill more than 2,000 swimming pools.

• Erected more than 72,000 tons of steel, which is about the weight of 10,300 male African elephants.

• Installed more than 348,000 cubic yards of concrete. A washing machine is generally equivalent to 1 cubic yard. So, imagine 348,000 of them lined up at the massive site.

• Hung more than 450,000 square feet of drywall. How much is that? Experts say a typical 2,000-square-foot home needs about 8,000 square feet of drywall. So, imagine enough drywall for about 56 new houses.

Groundbreaking for the giant complex, which will build batteries for Ford and Lincoln electric vehicles, took place in December 2022.

Additionally, the infrastructure upgrades at the nearby Exit 86 interchange are nearing completion, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said two weeks ago when announcing a shift in the traffic pattern.

“Like Toyota in the 80s, this is a game-changer, state-changer. It’s one of the reasons we’re viewed differently by the country right now,” Beshear told the Herald-Leader in a year-end interview in mid-December.

“So much of this technology — which, remember, it’s not just the batteries; it’s all the components that are coming — are coming from South Korea.”

For that reason, Beshear’s budget proposal includes $500,000 for an economic development office in South Korea. The commonwealth currently has such offices in Japan and Germany.

“So many other companies involved in that, involved in chips, which we’re trying to do more in, and involved in the technology that we need here in the United States,” Beshear said.

“Having an office in South Korea, while we already have such a great initial partnership, we believe can make us different, available and is a market where we can be competitive in, but we can win in.”

Japan has the largest direct foreign investment in Kentucky, with such companies as Toyota and Hitachi present in the Bluegrass, he said.

“It shows you what an office can do and how it can grow when you look at the numbers of employees in the state supported by Japanese-owned businesses,” Beshear said. “It’s incredible, and we’re grateful. It’s more of a partnership. It’s like a marriage — a good marriage.”

Beshear sees the potential South Korean office as a “chance to do more and create those direct relationships where someone doesn’t have to travel to Kentucky to learn about us, to meet with us.

“We can bring those opportunities directly to them,” he said.

BlueOval SK also is partnering with Elizabethtown Community and Technical College to build an on-site training center for the thousands of employees who will build the batteries. The center received a $25 million allocation from the state, and ground was broken on the facility in April 2023.

The facility will be 42,000 square feet and will include “virtual reality labs, industrial maintenance lab, work simulation lab and ergonomics techniques classrooms,” according to BlueOval SK officials.

Ryan Quarles, incoming president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, said colleges like his should play a role in recruiting such expansive economic development projects.

“When an existing business or an out-of-state business looks at Kentucky and contacts the Cabinet for Economic Development, we want to make sure that ... the CEOs making those decisions know that our workforce development issues can be addressed through a robust community and technical college presence,” Quarles told the Herald-Leader.

“We need to make sure that we are the first phone call that businesses make when deciding to come to Kentucky, to make sure they have a qualified and educated workforce,” he said.

BlueOval SK is already hiring for a number of positions for its Glendale location, including maintenance technicians, operators and material handlers.

Job listings are available at blueovalsk.com/kentucky.