Hyundai Electric joins hands with GE to enter offshore wind power business

Hyundai Electric will advance into the offshore wind power market jointly with GE Renewable Energy.

Hyundai Electric, an electric systems spinoff from South Korean shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., announced on Tuesday that it has signed a "strategic partnership for entering the offshore wind power market" with GE Renewable Energy.

GE Renewable Energy is an American wind turbine manufacturer division of global industrial giant General Electric.

The contract signing event was attended by Hyundai Electric President Cho Seok, GE Renewable Energy Offshore Wind CCO Fabrice Kermogant, US Ambassador to Korea Philip Goldberg, and Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Park Il-joon.

The two companies will collaborate in producing and marketing offshore wind power products both in the domestic and overseas markets.

Hyundai will be in charge of producing nacelles and generators, which are key components of GE's super-large wind turbine called Haliade-X.

It will also promote the localization of various equipment and parts.

GE will cooperate with Hyundai in winning orders from domestic and foreign customers and will help support Korea achieve its nationally determined contributions (NDCs) goal.

The two parties also signed a letter of intent to establish a joint venture (JV) that will support order-taking efforts to expand the market.

Earlier, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced plans to create a 12-gigawatt offshore wind power cluster in Korea by 2030.

"By incorporating GE's global know-how and technology into our operations, we will raise our competitiveness to win more orders," said Hyundai President Cho Seok.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com