By Yoon Sung-won
LG Electronics will build a home appliance plant in the United States, its first investment after U.S. President Donald Trump took office early this year.
The Seoul-based tech giant said Tuesday that it would establish the 74,000-square-meter plant in Tennessee where it would manufacture washers and refrigerators.
LG said the plant would create more than 500 jobs.
The firm originally planned to set up the U.S. plant in 2019 but decided to accelerate the project because of the Trump administration's protectionist measures of levying border taxes on products made outside the U.S.
LG Electronics currently rolls out televisions and refrigerators in Mexico to be shipped to the U.S. but the company seems to fear that President Trump may impose a high border tax on its made-in-Mexico products.
Meanwhile, LG's cross-city rival Samsung Electronics is also considering constructing a home appliance plant in the U.S. after Trump tweeted that he would love to see Samsung on American soil.
Earlier last month, Trump hastily sent out a thank-you note on his Twitter account even before Samsung made a final decision on the plant construction, which appeared to put pressure on the company to do so.
In a Twitter message, Trump said, "Thank you, @Samsung! We would love to have you!"
In response, Samsung said that it had yet to make any decision on investment but observers predicted that the company would shell out big bucks to build a plant in the U.S. in the not so distant future.
LG Electronics will build a home appliance plant in the United States, its first investment after U.S. President Donald Trump took office early this year.
The Seoul-based tech giant said Tuesday that it would establish the 74,000-square-meter plant in Tennessee where it would manufacture washers and refrigerators.
LG said the plant would create more than 500 jobs.
The firm originally planned to set up the U.S. plant in 2019 but decided to accelerate the project because of the Trump administration's protectionist measures of levying border taxes on products made outside the U.S.
LG Electronics currently rolls out televisions and refrigerators in Mexico to be shipped to the U.S. but the company seems to fear that President Trump may impose a high border tax on its made-in-Mexico products.
Meanwhile, LG's cross-city rival Samsung Electronics is also considering constructing a home appliance plant in the U.S. after Trump tweeted that he would love to see Samsung on American soil.
Earlier last month, Trump hastily sent out a thank-you note on his Twitter account even before Samsung made a final decision on the plant construction, which appeared to put pressure on the company to do so.
In a Twitter message, Trump said, "Thank you, @Samsung! We would love to have you!"
In response, Samsung said that it had yet to make any decision on investment but observers predicted that the company would shell out big bucks to build a plant in the U.S. in the not so distant future.
