Hanwha's Full Effort in US Business... Record High Q1 Lobbying Funds Secured for IRA

[Hanwha's Aggressive Management in the US]
Rapid Increase Since IRA Implementation
Building North America's Largest Solar Power Complex
Received 209.6 Billion KRW in IRA Subsidies
Tax Credits Expected to Reach 1 Trillion KRW Next Year

Hanwha Group is aggressively expanding its business in the United States. Hanwha Solutions has invested over 3 trillion won in the construction of solar power complexes in the U.S. over the past year. As Hanwha Group is actively broadening its business scope in the U.S., the amount spent on local political and governmental relations reached record highs both annually and quarterly in the first quarter of this year.

According to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit organization that provides information on U.S. lobbying funds, Hanwha Group spent $1.04 million (approximately 1.4 billion won) on local government relations in the first quarter of this year. This amount is 66% of the record-high annual expenditure from last year, spent within just three months. Compared to the same period last year ($290,000), it has increased nearly fourfold. This year, Hanwha Group has hired 12 lobbyists in the U.S., the highest number ever.

Lobbying in the U.S. is a legal business based on the First Amendment right to petition. However, the targets, amounts, and activities of lobbying must be transparently disclosed, and violations are punishable.

Hanwha Group's lobbying funds for the U.S. were $50,000 (about 70 million won) in 2018 and have increased 32 times over five years. In 2019, it spent $320,000 (about 400 million won), and in 2020 and 2021, the amounts rose to $450,000 (about 600 million won) and $640,000 (about 900 million won), respectively.

Especially after the U.S. administration implemented the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the spending surged sharply. In 2022, the first year of the law's enforcement, Hanwha spent $900,000 (about 1.2 billion won), exceeding 1 billion won for the first time, and last year, it spent $1.58 million (2.152 billion won) on political and governmental relations, setting an annual record high. The increase in related costs is attributed to the expansion of local investments in line with the IRA implementation.

A Hanwha official said, "The tendency for business to be influenced by U.S. government policies has intensified, making the increase in costs inevitable."

Hanwha's largest business in the U.S. is solar power. Hanwha Solutions invested a total of 3.2 trillion won to establish the largest integrated solar power production complex in North America in Georgia. By expanding the Dalton plant and building a new Cartersville plant, it secured an annual solar module production capacity of 8.4 GW.

The investment amount is also the largest in the history of the U.S. solar energy industry. Thanks to this, Hanwha Solutions became the first company in North America to have the entire solar power core value chain from polysilicon, ingot, wafer, cell, to module.

Hanwha Q CELLS Dalton Factory in Georgia, USA [Photo by Hanwha Solutions]

In this process, Hanwha Solutions received 209.6 billion won in IRA subsidies last year and 96.6 billion won in the first quarter of this year. Hanwha expects the IRA-related tax credits to reach 1 trillion won next year.

An industry insider said, "The major markets in the world are basically China and the U.S., but since it is difficult to do business in China, the only place to find a breakthrough now is the U.S. It is a kind of survival strategy."