Hyundai expansion plan announced
Hyundai Construction Equipment (HCE) to invest $170 million to expand production capacity by 50 percent.
With this investment, the company will increase its capacity at Ulsan, South Korea, its major production base, to 15,000 units of construction equipment. This investment, to be spread across four years, is the largest since the company’s launch as a newly established corporation in 2017.
“This increase in manufacturing capability means that Hyundai will be able to address global growth in construction activity,” says Stan Park, president, Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas. “For North America, this positions us to better meet demand arising from planned investments in infrastructure expansion.”
Hyundai Construction Equipment’s investment is focused on restructuring production lines to maximize and expand production capacity for excavators, wheel loaders and other types of construction equipment. Specifically, they will merge production and assembly functions from one factory into two, simplifying workflow processes, increasing efficiency and reducing logistics costs.
Choi Cheol-gun, CEO of HCE and a production expert in the area of construction equipment who also heads Hyundai Heavy Industries Group’s Global Production Innovation Center, recently declared the necessity of improving the efficiency of the Ulsan facility and set out to execute a plan to create both synergy and friendly competition with Hyundai Doosan Infracore.
“Strengthening the competitiveness of the Ulsan factory is the first challenge that needs to be addressed to reach the global top five, a stated goal of the construction equipment division of Hyundai Heavy Industries. With this investment, we will further raise our brand competitiveness by producing and delivering construction equipment with increased efficiency,” says Choi.
New production facilities to reflect ESG factors
Additionally, Hyundai Construction Equipment plans to reflect ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors, through measures such as the use of eco-friendly sub-materials in interior and exterior finish work and configuring production lines in a way that further improves worker safety.
This is in keeping with completion of construction last November, at a cost of US$65 million, of HCE’s technology innovation center. With 16 laboratories employing 100 researchers, the center will execute research and development projects focused on eco-friendly technologies, energy efficiency and noise reduction.
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