Hyundai Doosan Infracore bags $256 mn Turkey defense deal

Hyundai Doosan Infracore Co., a South Korean construction equipment maker, won a 313.1 billion won ($255.5 million) defense deal from Turkey, suggesting the ongoing war in Ukraine is expected to continue to increase weapon exports of the Northeast Asian country.

Hyundai Doosan said on Thursday it signed a contract to supply 1,500 horsepower tank engines to BMC, Turkey’s major commercial and military vehicle manufacturer. This is the first deal for the unit of the world’s top shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries Group to export tank engines alone.

Hyundai Doosan is scheduled to deliver the first batch of tank engines worth 110.2 billion won from 2023 to 2025 and ship the rest in the 2028-2030 period.

BMC is set to install the engines on the Altay, Turkey’s next-generation main battle tank developed after learning the design technology of South Korea’s K2 Black Panther from its manufacturer Hyundai Rotem Co.

ENGINES FOR K2 TANKS FOR POLAND

In December last year, Hyundai Doosan signed a 183 billion won deal to supply engines for the South Korean next-generation main tank to Hyundai Rotem, a defense equipment maker of South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor Group.

The K2 tanks equipped with those engines will be exported to Poland, which in August 2022 agreed to buy 180 units of the armored fighting vehicles from Hyundai Rotem in a $3.4 billion deal – South Korea’s first export of such battle tanks.

Hyundai Doosan’s defense sales are predicted to increase further if the continuing war in Ukraine boosts demand for South Korean tanks in Europe.

Germany decided to send its coveted Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, while the US plans to provide its M1 Abrams tanks.

South Korea’s trade ministry aims to increase defense exports this year from a record high of $17 billion in 2022.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.