Joduyoung, CEO of SY: "This Year's Goals Are Profitability Improvement and Subsidiary IPO"

Co-CEO Joo Doo-young of SY. Photo by SY

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunseok Yoo] "SY Steeltec is rapidly growing in the deck plate sector. We plan to list on the KOSDAQ market by the end of this year or early next year."

Jo Dooyoung, co-CEO of SY (photo), revealed that the top priority for this year's management plan is the listing of SY Steeltec. SY Steeltec is a subsidiary of SY, with SY holding a 62% stake. Established in 2015, the company has shown rapid growth, ranking 3rd or 4th in the deck plate industry. Its sales, which were only 4.2 billion KRW in 2015, increased to 59 billion KRW by 2018.

Currently, they have selected an underwriter and are preparing for an initial public offering (IPO), with a valuation of about 70 billion KRW. CEO Jo stated, "Steeltec has grown focusing on the high value-added market rather than the low-price market, and the quality of its products is also recognized. Especially, the sales channels that SY had have helped Steeltec's growth."

Not only the subsidiary's growth but SY itself is also undergoing structural improvements. First, they plan to improve performance through management rationalization, such as reorganizing product lines with poor price competitiveness among the products the company produces. He emphasized, "Recently, as the government has strengthened regulations on building materials, products with weak fire safety have lost competitiveness. To proactively respond to such issues, we will operate mainly profitable business areas, including suspending operations in parts of production plants with low profitability."

He pointed out the increase in logistics warehouses as one of the company's positive factors. SY has supplied to the Daegu Coupang Logistics Center and IKEA Dongbusan branch so far. CEO Jo explained, "Panels are always used in logistics warehouses, and our volume is increasing significantly."

Along with this, they will focus on improving performance through new products. The company developed the 'NO-RIVET' fire-resistant panel. This product prevents the spread of fire in buildings. He said, "We started full-scale sales from the fourth quarter of last year, and the response has been good. We will also develop items that help improve profitability." They are also accelerating overseas expansion. SY is currently promoting the supply of materials for the station construction project of the 'North-South Railway Project' connecting Clark and Manila in the Philippines.