Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK leaders on overseas business trips

Leaders of South Korea’s three big conglomerates – Samsung, Hyundai and SK – are meeting with their major partners and business leaders abroad to explore new growth opportunities and strengthen their strategic partnerships.

Jay Y. Lee, vice chairman and de facto leader of Samsung Group, late on Monday will be leaving on a trip to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

“During his stay in those countries, he is expected to seek tighter partnerships with Samsung’s major clients in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and explore new business opportunities there,” said an industry official.

Lee's latest overseas trip comes less than two weeks following his visit to the US in November when Samsung officially announced its plan to build a $17 billion chipmaking plant in Taylor, Texas, as the tech giant aims to overtake bigger foundry rival TSMC.

Lee last visited the Middle Eastern countries in 2019.

In February of 2019, the Samsung leader traveled to the UAE and met with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss cooperation in the technology sector, including 5G mobile communications.

Lee then invited the UAE prince to Korea to showcase Samsung’s 5G equipment and smart factories.

In June of that year, he met the visiting Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Korea, where they discussed ways to cooperate in areas of artificial intelligence, 5G and system chips.

Lee met the Saudi crown prince again when he visited the Middle Eastern country in September of 2019.

Following his planned trip to the UAE and Saudi Arabia this time, he may also travel to Europe, industry watchers said.

In October of last year, Lee visited the Netherlands to meet top executives of ASML Holding N.V., the world’s only maker of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, key equipment for making advanced chips.

He is expected to return to Korea before Dec. 16, when he is required to appear at a Seoul court for trial.

Currently, he’s on parole after spending several months in prison following a court ruling in January that sentenced him to two-and-a-half years in jail during a retrial of a bribery case involving former South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

SK’S CHEY, HYUNDAI’S CHUNG IN US

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won on Sunday embarked on a US trip, which will take him to the Trans-Pacific Dialogue, a meeting of bureaucrats, business leaders and scholars from the US, Korea and Japan.

Ahead of his trip, he said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that SK is looking into the possibility of building a chip fabrication factory in the US.

Asked if SK’s US investment plan is about building new chipmaking plants or mostly about research, he said: “We don’t have plans yet. We have a so-called precondition study. It’s a huge market.”

SK Group has said it will invest nearly $15 billion in battery production from 2021 through 2025 globally. SK’s capital spending for semiconductors, green technology and biologic pharmaceuticals is forecast to hit $40 billion over that time, according to the WSJ.

Many of SK’s investments have focused on the US, where BlueOvalSK, a battery cell joint venture between SK On Co. and Ford Motor Co., is building lithium-ion battery factories.

“We've put in a lot of money and R&D effort into the battery project. It's still losing money. The capex numbers are enormous. Sometimes I’m really scared about those numbers. That’s why we have to make some joint ventures with original equipment manufacturers,” he told the WSJ.

Meanwhile, Chung Euisun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, which owns Korea’s two largest automakers, Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., is still in Delaware, Ohio, touring Genesis Air Mobility LLC, Hyundai’s urban air mobility (UAM) business.

Last month, Hyundai said its UAM business, including R&D projects, in the US will be handled by a new company named Supernal LLC, headquartered in Washington D.C.

Write to Hyung-Suk Song, Byung-Uk Do and Jeong-Min Nam at click@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.