An electric vehicle battery plant in China jointly-owned by South Korean conglomerate SK Innovation has been closed since January, the company said, making it the latest South Korean battery maker to run into troubles in China as Beijing boosts domestic producers.

The company confirmed the halt in operations to the Financial Times on Friday, after local media reported the closure. The plant was a joint-venture with two Chinese companies in which SK Innovation owns a roughly 40 per cent stake. SK said its Chinese partners had decided to halt production but had not provided a clear explanation, write Tom Hancock and Kang Buseong.

Trade tensions between South Korea and China have spiked in recent months over Thaad, a US-designed missile defence system being installed by Seoul, with Beijing pressuring South Korean businesses. But SK Innovation said “we don’t think that the decision is just because of China’s economic retaliation out of Korea’s Thaad deployment”.