Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI), the world’s largest shipbuilder and a leading construction equipment manufacturer, today announced that it completed its first construction equipment factory in Brazil.

 

The completion ceremony for the factory in Itatiaia, Rio de Janeiro state, was attended by Mr. Sergio Cabral, Rio de Janeiro state governor; Mr. Luis Carlos Ferreira Bastos, mayor of Itatiaia; and Mr. Choe Byeong-ku, president & COO of Hyundai Heavy Industries’s Construction Equipment Division.

 

With an investment of USD 175 million, the 562,000 m2 factory has an annual production capacity of 3,000 units including excavators, wheel loaders, and backhoe loaders, and plans to increase the capacity to 4,000 units by 2014.

 

HHI has already won orders worth USD 60 million for 500 construction equipment from eight projects in Brazil including the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in Pará state and a railway project in Brazil’s northeast.

 

The Ulsan, South Korea-based company expects the new Brazilian plant will serve as the South and Central America base helping Hyundai Heavy secure market share, and provide better service to clients in the region.

“We believe our construction factory can make contributions to, and grow together with the Brazilian economy which continues to grow as a center of the global economy.” said Mr. Choe Byeong-ku.