Korea's Daedong to speed up growth with smart farming machines

Daedong Corp., South Korea’s top agricultural machinery manufacturer, aims to accelerate growth based on new businesses such as smart machines, farms and future mobility, after enjoying healthy earnings last year thanks to strong tractor sales in North America.

Daedong said on Thursday it plans to concentrate on qualitative and quantitative development in its core smart farming machinery business, to extend overall growth. The company is also set to cut unproductive costs in the manufacturing processes, except expenses for the environment and safety.

The maker of Kioti agricultural machinery plans to adopt the connect function, a remote control service for its devices, to small tractors and combine harvesters while targeting large farming machine markets at home and abroad with the HX Tractor series with Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities. The technology enables the vehicle to handle "all aspects of the driving" when engaged but still needs the driver attentive enough to promptly take control if necessary.

AUTONOMOUS TRACTORS

It aims to develop a tractor with Level 4 capabilities, which can operate in self-driving mode, for demonstration and begin on-site tests. It will also start developing three robots for farming and non-agricultural sectors in cooperation with the Korea Institute of Robotics & Technology Convergence.

“We will ramp up Daedong’s corporate value by introducing products developed by the three core future businesses such as autonomous agricultural machinery, smart farming solution and electric scooters one by one this year,” said Daedong CEO Won Yu-Hyun.

The company logged an operating profit of 84.9 billion won ($66 million) last year, more than double the 38.2 billion profit in 2021 as revenue rose 24% to 1.5 trillion won with strong tractor exports to North America.

Write to Gyeong-Jin Min at min@hankyung.com

Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.