By Park Jin-hai
Hanwha Advanced Materials, a unit of Hanwha Group, will relocate its headquarters to Sejong City from Seoul.
The company has two local factories in Sejong City and Eumseong-gun, North Chungcheong Province, where it produces materials for vehicles and solar panels.
“By having our headquarters near factories, we will be able to eliminate the time and physical distances,” said Kim Chang-bum, CEO of Hanwha Advanced Materials.
“It will fasten policy making and create synergic effects. We could better cope with the fast changing demands of advanced materials and cut costs.”
By moving to a local Chungcheong Province, the home for its parent group, the company aims to revive the regional economy as well, he added.
Kim, who has been working there since last month, said that teams responsible for project planning and personnel will move to the city from December.
By the time the construction of the four-story headquarters is completed in the latter half of next year, all employees except for automotive and solar material marketing divisions will be relocated to the administrative city.
Its R&D center, located in Daejeon, will take home in the city as well.
The firm, which has been regrouped and renamed as Hanwha Advanced Material, after the group’s building material unit Hanwha L&C was sold to Morgan Stanley Private Equity in June, has been expanding its business presence in the automotive material sector.
With the capital accrued from selling Hanwha L&C, it considers acquiring overseas automotive components and film material companies.
Hanwha Advanced Materials recorded 1 trillion won in sales last year, among which 45 percent came from its overseas sales.