Hyundai Heavy Industries has completed its first construction equipment factory in Brazil. With an investment of $175 million, the more than 6 million square-foot factory has an annual production capacity of 3,000 units including excavators, wheel loaders and backhoe loaders, with plans to increase capacity to 4,000 units by 2014.
HHI has already received orders worth $60 million for 500 construction equipment units from eight projects in Brazil including the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in the state of Pará and a railway project in northeastern Brazil.
The completion ceremony for the factory in Itatiaia, Rio de Janeiro, was attended by Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral; mayor of Itatiaia Luis Carlos Ferreira Bastos; and Choe Byeong-ku, president and chief operations officer of Hyundai Heavy Industries' Construction Equipment division.
The Ulsan, Korea-based company expects the new Brazilian plant to be its South and Central America base helping HHI secure market share and provide better service to customers in the region.
"We believe our construction factory can make contributions to and grow together with the Brazilian economy, which continues to grow as a center of the global economy," said Choe.
