SEOUL, KOREA - Hyundai Elevator has completed an elevator manufacturing plant in Brazil, which will serve as the production base for the whole South American market. The company said on April 17 that it held a completion ceremony at the Sao Leopoldo plant site in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul. The ceremony was attended by 250 guests including the state's governor Tarso Genro, consul general at the Korean Consulate General in Sao Paulo Hong Young-jong, as well as Hyundai Elevator president Han Sang-ho.

 

With about 100 employees including Korean managers sent from home, the Brazilian plant is capable of producing 3,000 elevators a year. A Hyundai Elevator official said, "We will increase the number of workers at the plant up to 600 by 2020." Currently the South American market for elevators including installation, maintenance, and repairs is estimated at US$3 billion.

 

Before completing the plant, the company won an order of 159 elevators for Olympic village apartment buildings. In addition, it is currently under negotiation to take the job of installing elevators in Visionaire, a shopping mall to be built in Brasilia, and Trump Towers under construction in Rio de Janeiro.

 

At the ceremony, Mr. Han of Hyundai Elevator said in a speech, "Despite a short history of 30 years, Hyundai Elevator has now become one of the world's major elevator makers developing the world's fastest elevator of 1,080 meters a minute and 600-meters-a-minute double-deck elevator. The completion of the Brazilian plant will provide a new momentum for us to leap forward."