Seoul, April 16 LS Electric, a South Korean electric equipment maker, said on Wednesday it will invest US$240 million to expand its U.S. production facility by 2030 in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's import tariffs.
LS Electric has recently upgraded its existing production facility in Bastrop, Texas, to add research and development (R&D) and planning functions, the company said in a press release.
The U.S. market and the upgraded Bastrop Campus will serve as a steppingstone for LS Electric to become a global electric equipment company, the release said.
Starting this year, the company will additionally produce mid-voltage electric equipment and switch gears in the Texas plant for supply to local big tech firms as part of its localisation strategy to cope with the "tariff risks," according to the company, reports Yonhap news agency.
The plant has mainly produced circuit breakers and low-voltage electric equipment for Samsung Electronics Co.'s semiconductor plant in Texas and local data centres.
"We will make an additional investment of $240 million in the Bastrop Campus by 2030 to foster it as an electric equipment solution hub of the North American market," LS Electric Chairman Koo Ja-kyun said in the release.
LS Electric aims to earn 70 percent of its overall sales from overseas markets by 2030, up from the current 50 percent.
Last year, its sales rose 7.6 percent to 4.55 trillion won ($3.18 billion) from 4.23 trillion won a year earlier. The company currently has four domestic plants and five overseas ones -- two in China, two in the U.S. and one in Vietnam.
The other U.S. plant is located in the state of Utah. LS Electric is an affiliate of power cable and electric equipment maker LS Group.
LS Electric’s fourth-quarter net profit jumped 44.1 percent from a year earlier on robust sales of its products. Net profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 rose to 62.8 billion won ($43.7 million) from 43.56 billion won in the year-ago period.
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