MIDWAY, Ga. (AP): A South Korean company will build a $72 million factory to make half shafts, axles and brake systems for a Hyundai Motor Group auto assembly plant in coastal Georgia.
Seohan Group announced Tuesday that it would build the plant near Midway, south of Savannah, with plans to hire at least 180 new employees.
Seohan Auto Georgia is the seventh major supplier to locate in the region after Hyundai said in May it would build a $5.5 billion plant to assemble electric vehicles and batteries in Ellabell, Georgia. The site could grow to 8,100 employees and is slated to begin producing vehicles in 2025.
Seohan and six other suppliers have since pledged to invest nearly $2 billion and hire more than 4,600 people.
Like a number of South Korean suppliers, Seoul-based Seohan already supplies a Hyundai assembly plant in Montgomery, Alabama and a Kia plant in West Point, Georgia. Seohan makes axles and driveshafts at two plants in Auburn, Alabama, that opened in 2008 and 2014. The company said last year that it would invest $13.5 million in the plants, which jointly employ more than 200 people, to make parts for electric vehicles. But the company said Tuesday that it needs additional capacity to make parts as automakers convert to electric propulsion.
“Sustained growth of the EV market over the past few years suggests that accelerated changes to the automotive market is inevitable,” Seohan Auto Georgia Corp. CEO Jung Kee Koo said in a statement. “We believe Georgia will be the center of the EV industry, and will be a new frontier for Seohan’s future with limitless opportunities and potential.”
The plant will be located in a business park off Interstate 95 near Midway, in Liberty County. The company plans to begin production in late 2024.
Seohan also could qualify for $2.7 million in state income tax credits, at $3,000 per job over five years, as long as workers make at least $31,300 a year. The state will also pay to train workers.
