Seventeen of the 22 workers who died were Chinese and one Laotian was also among the dead. Most of them were hired temporarily to work at the plant packing primary lithium batteries run by unlisted company Aricell.
The factory is in Hwaseong, an industrial cluster southwest of the capital Seoul.
Firefighters with search dogs combed the gutted structure looking for the one person who remains missing. They found human remains and personal articles, which will be DNA tested for identification, Hwaseong fire official Kim Jin-young said.
Established in 2020, South Korea-based Aricell makes lithium primary batteries for sensors and radio communication devices. It has 48 employees, according to its latest regulatory filing and its LinkedIn profile.
It is majority-owned by S-Connect which supplies lithium-ion battery parts to Samsung SDI, one of the country’s major secondary battery makers, according to S-Connect’s website.
Regulatory filings showed Aricell recorded a 2.6 billion won (US$1.9 million) operating loss last year on 4.8 billion won revenue, and a 14 per cent increase in accumulated debt to 23.8 billion won. It has recorded net losses every year since founding.
Shares of S-Connect, registered on the junior Kosdaq index, were trading down 6 per cent on Tuesday after plunging 22.5 per cent on Monday following the news of the fire.
A labour ministry official told Reuters it was investigating whether Aricell complied with safety regulations and gave enough safety training for temporary foreign workers. Violations of those regulations are subject to criminal prosecution, the official said requesting anonymity.
Many of the bodies remain unidentified.
Reuters journalists saw some wailing family members trying to enter the site, which had been cordoned off.
