Hyundai E&C takes lead in L. American construction market

Employees work at the construction site for the Bello Wastewater Treatment Plant that Hyundai Engineering & Construction is building in Colombia. Hyundai E&C and Spain’s Acciona Agua won the $350 million project in March 2012. The construction is scheduled to be completed in March.

By Park Jin-hai

Hyundai Engineering & Construction (E&C) is looking into new opportunities in the Latin American market.

While local builders heavily depend on the Middle East construction market, Hyundai E&C has been focusing on Latin America for its next growth engine -- and it is making unprecedented inroads.

“One of the major achievements was the contract to build an oil refinery in Venezuela last year,” said a Hyundai E&C official.

Hyundai E&C, with China’s Wison Engineering, won a $4.8 billion contract in November to build much of the plant for the oil refinery in Puerto La Cruz.

It was the third contract the company has won in Venezuela since it entered the market in 2012, and the largest project given to a Korean company in Latin America.

“The consortium whereby Korean and Chinese firms closely cooperated was regarded as providing a new model then,” the official said.

Hyundai E&C opened its first Latin American office in Bogota, Columbia, in 2010, and has been making great strides there.

In March 2012, Hyundai E&C and Spain’s Acciona Agua won a $350 million contract to build a sewage treatment plant in Medellin, Colombia, their first business in the country since 2003. Construction is scheduled for completion in March.

In November 2012, it entered Uruguay for the first time, winning a $630 million project to build a thermal power station in Punta del Tigre.

Last year, the company won a contract in Chile, agreeing to build the Chacao Bridge with Brazilian company OAS. The $648 million project drew a lot of attention because the 2.75 kilometer bridge will be in the form of a four-land suspension, the first of its type in South America.

“The construction of the bridge is meaningful because, with it, we entered the civil engineering market as well, based on the trust built on our building expertise and technologies,” the Hyundai E&C official said.

In five South American nations, Hyundai E&C has won a total of 11 contracts, worth $8.3 billion. Since coming under the wing of Hyundai Motor Group in 2011, it has won 10 contracts, worth $8.1 billion.

“It is the outcome of tapping into Hyundai Motor’s regional networks and brand value,” the official said.

As of June 2015, the Latin America region accounts for 34.2 percent of Hyundai E&C’s overseas business, the largest portion among local construction companies, followed by POSCO E&C with 30 percent and Hyundai E&C with 12 percent.