S. Korean biz leaders head to US for Lee-Trump summit

Seoul, Aug 24 Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and other top executives from South Korea's major conglomerates left for the United States on Sunday to join the economic delegation for President Lee Jae Myung's upcoming summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Samsung chairman arrived at the Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center of Gimpo International Airport in western Seoul around 3:50 p.m. to board a flight to Washington, reports Yonhap news agency.

Industry attention is being paid to whether Samsung Electronics will disclose a plan to expand its chip factory in Taylor, Texas.

Samsung Electronics earlier announced plans to invest US$37 billion to build new foundry facilities in Taylor, Texas, by 2030. The tech giant operates a separate chip factory in Austin, Texas.

Around noon, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo and Hanwha Group Vice Chairman Kim Dong-kwan left for the U.S. as part of the presidential economic delegation.

Asked about his role, Chey said briefly, "I will do my best."

Other business leaders in the delegation include Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair Euisun Chung, CJ Group Chairman Lee Jae-hyun, Korean Air Co. Chairman Cho Won-tae and HD Hyundai Executive Vice Chairman Chung Ki-sun.

The summit -- set for Monday (local time) in Washington -- follows a recent trade deal that lowered U.S. reciprocal tariffs on South Korean goods from 25 percent to 15 percent in exchange for South Korea's pledge of US$350 billion in investment and $100 billion in U.S. energy purchases.

Of the pledged investment, $150 billion will go toward Seoul's shipbuilding cooperation initiative, dubbed "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again" (MASGA). Trump has stressed the need to revive the U.S. shipbuilding industry and highlighted the role of allies, such as South Korea, a global leader in naval vessel construction.

It remains to be seen whether Korean companies will unveil additional U.S. investment plans during Lee's first meeting with Trump since his inauguration on June 4.

Hyundai Motor Group announced in March it will invest $21 billion in the U.S. through 2028, including $8.6 billion in the automotive sector and $6.1 billion in steel, components and logistics.

SK hynix Inc. is building a $3.87 billion memory packaging plant and advanced packaging R&D facility in West Lafayette, Indiana, to produce high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips for artificial intelligence applications.

LG Energy Solution Ltd., an LG Group affiliate, operates three battery cell plants in the U.S., located in Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan, with additional facilities under construction in Michigan, Georgia and Ohio through joint ventures with GM, Hyundai Motor Group and Honda, respectively.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor