Hyundai to expand production

Hyundai Heavy Industries, the world’s largest shipbuilder, said it is planning to build two plants in Korea that will make ship parts. One of the manufacturing facilities will be built in Ulsan, and another in Pohang, south of Seoul. Hyundai will be investing $386 million in the two plants.

Hyundai?s plan for the factories comes as its two competitors, Daewoo and Samsung, are building plants in China, taking advantage of the lower labour costs there to help offset higher steel prices. Daewoo announced in May that it would build a $100 million plant in China to produce “blocks” at the factory from 2007. Samsung said it has invested $68 million to raise production capacity at its Chinese unit by 67% to 200,000 tonnes of blocks by the end of this year. The unit currently has the capacity for 120,000 tonnes.