Hyosung Heavy Industries adds high-voltage transformer manufacturing facility in U.S.

[Photo by Hyosung Heavy Industries Corp.]

South Korea’s Hyosung Heavy Industries Corp. will acquire an extra high-voltage transformer manufacturing facility in Tennessee, the United States, in a move that will help the electrical power equipment company tap deeper into the world’s largest power market.

Hyosung Heavy Industries said in a disclosure on Monday that it has decided to acquire an extra high-voltage large power transformer manufacturing facility in Tennessee, the U.S., managed by Mitsubishi Electric Power Products Inc., for $46.5 million. The company did not disclose further details such as acquisition method and period.

The Tennessee plant will produce core-type extra high-voltage transformers starting in the first half of next year, the company said. Core-type extra high-voltage transformers account for 95 percent of global transformer demand.

Hyosung Heavy Industries said that the latest investment comes amid growing demand for power consumption in the U.S. as well as for replacement of worn-out power devices and infrastructure.

The company also added that the acquisition will help secure competitiveness as it will have its own local manufacturing facility at a time when the U.S. has been upping trade protectionism policy by imposing anti-dumping tariffs to 40 to 60 percent of Korea’s major extra high-voltage power transformer manufacturers.

The American extra high-voltage transformer market is estimated at 2 trillion won. Hyosung Heavy Industries, which entered the market in 2001, has been putting out efforts to tap deeper into the market by maintaining long-term partnership with major power companies.

Once the Tennessee facility begins operations, Hyosung Heavy Industries is expected to enhance the role of its current major plant in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, as a global technology development center, and focus on product manufacturing for Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

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