[2024 Asia Construction Awards] Hyundai Engineering Solidifies Position as a Global Construction Company

19th Asia Construction Awards
Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Award - Overseas Construction Category Winner

Hyundai Engineering, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is expanding its presence in the advanced construction market of Europe. Building on its experience of executing two trillion-won scale petrochemical plant projects in Poland, the company secured the 'SK Nexilis Copper Foil Plant' project, which is scheduled for completion in the second half of this year.

In March 2022, Hyundai Engineering won the contract for a copper foil production plant in Poland, ordered by SK Nexilis, a manufacturer of copper foil for electric vehicle batteries, worth 250 million euros (approximately 370 billion KRW), and began construction in July of the same year. The project involves constructing a total of 12 buildings, including two production plants. The plant is being built in the Stalowa Wola Special Economic Zone in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship in eastern Poland.

'Copper foil' refers to a thin copper film about 10 micrometers thick, which is a key material that determines the price and performance of lithium-ion secondary batteries. Once operational, the plant will produce 50,000 tons of battery-grade copper foil annually. SK Nexilis, the project owner, decided in 2021 to build a European plant in Poland to meet the globally increasing demand for copper foil. The following year, Hyundai Engineering was selected as the contractor through a comprehensive evaluation.

Hyundai Engineering's winning of the 'Poland SK Nexilis Copper Foil Plant' project was greatly influenced by its prior success with the 'Malaysia SK Nexilis Copper Foil Plant.' The construction industry evaluates that Hyundai Engineering's technological capabilities and project execution skills demonstrated at the Malaysian copper foil plant, completed in the first half of this year, led to the additional order for the Polish plant.

A bird's-eye view of the 'SK Nexilis Copper Foil Plant' being built by Hyundai Engineering in the Stalowa Wola Special Economic Zone, Podkarpackie Voivodeship, eastern Poland

Hyundai Engineering's presence in Poland also played a significant role. In 2019, the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Poland, Hyundai Engineering secured a polypropylene production plant project worth about 1 billion euros (approximately 1.5 trillion KRW). In June 2021, the company also won an expansion project for an ethylene production plant worth about 2.9 billion euros (approximately 4.3 trillion KRW) from 'Orlen,' Poland's largest petrochemical company.

A Hyundai Engineering official stated, "Securing a secondary battery core material production plant in the advanced European construction market is a significant achievement," adding, "We will continue to accelerate additional orders not only in industrial plants but also across diverse portfolios."

Prior to winning the 'Poland SK Nexilis Copper Foil Plant' project, Hyundai Engineering completed the construction of SK On's Battery Plants 1 and 2 in Hungary in 2021, and also completed the joint battery cell plant ordered by Hyundai Motor Company and LG Energy Solution in Indonesia in 2023. Recognized for its battery production facility construction capabilities by these project owners, Hyundai Engineering further solidified its position as a global construction partner by winning large-scale U.S. battery plant projects ordered by LG Energy Solution and SK On in July last year.

Meanwhile, based on its experience in Poland, Hyundai Engineering is actively seeking opportunities to participate in Ukraine's reconstruction projects. In November last year, the company participated in the '2023 Ukraine Reconstruction Expo' held in Warsaw, Poland, signing two memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for cooperation in 'modular construction projects' and 'fertilizer and chemical projects.' On the first day of the expo, Hyundai Engineering signed an MOU with Kryvyi Rih City in Ukraine for the 'joint development of modular construction projects.' Kryvyi Rih is the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and is considered one of the regions with significant housing damage among administrative districts.

Hyundai Engineering completed Korea's tallest modular housing, a 13-story building, last year and has applied modular construction methods to large overseas plant projects to shorten construction periods, demonstrating top-tier modular construction capabilities among domestic construction companies. Hyundai Engineering and Kryvyi Rih are currently discussing business concretization by sharing lists of potential projects and site information. Additionally, Hyundai Engineering signed an MOU with GDF, the parent company of Ostchem, Ukraine's largest private fertilizer producer, for the restoration and new construction of fertilizer and chemical plants.