LS Electric North America's Sales Sixfold in Two Years 28% of all orders received in North America

LS Electric North America's Sales Sixfold in Two Years 28% of all orders received in North America. U.S. local customer sales grow eight-fold Chairman Koo Ja-kyun Accelerates Global Strategy "Power and automation are the food of the future."

LS Electric Cheongju Smart Factory View. Photo courtesy = LS Electric

LS Electric continues to grow high in the global power infrastructure market, mainly in North America. In particular, it is interesting to expand its business scope not only to facilities of Korean companies in North America but also to local customers in the United States. Through this, LS Electric challenged the global power infrastructure market 'Big Four' (Snyder Electric, Siemens, Eaton, and ABB).

LS Electric's sales related to power infrastructure in the North American market in 2024 are estimated to reach 698.5 billion won. Compared to sales (1201 billion won) in 2022, it grew 5.8 times and increased 55% year-on-year (451.7 billion won).

New orders in the North American market are also steadily growing. LS Electric's orders for 2024 reached 723.7 billion won. It increased by about 32% from the previous year (549.3 billion won) and grew by 61% compared to 2022 (45.2 billion won). In particular, orders in the North American market increased to 800 billion won as of the end of the third quarter of last year, accounting for about 27.59% of the total order balance (2.9 trillion won). As of the end of last year, LS Electric's order balance is expected to exceed 3.1 trillion won.

LS Electric Chairman Koo Ja-kyun's global power infrastructure order strategy seems to be accelerating. At the 50th anniversary of LS Electric's foundation in October last year, Chairman Koo said, "We will elevate the power and automation industry to a 'future food business' and grow into a global player."

LS Electric's rapid growth in the North American market is due to its success in targeting local companies in the U.S. In fact, the proportion of local customers in LS Electric's North American sales increased from 22.65% in 2022 to 34.36% in 2024. Sales of local customers, which were only 27.2 billion won in 2022, also grew more than eight times by 2024, exceeding 240 billion won.

In fact, LS Electric has often won orders for power infrastructure construction projects when Korean companies invest in facilities including factories in the U.S. In particular, South Korea's major industrial companies, including semiconductors, electric vehicles, and secondary batteries, benefited from increased U.S. investment in the wake of subsidies from the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Semiconductor Support Act (Chips Act). It won a 174.6 billion contract to supply distribution systems to Samsung Electronics' Taylor plant in Texas in 2022 and a 30 gigawatt-hour (GWh) joint battery plant power equipment business contract between Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution in Georgia in the same year. LS Electric also won an order to supply power equipment to Hyundai Motor's plant dedicated to electric vehicles in Georgia and to Hyundai Motor and SK-on joint battery plants.

Koo Ja-kyun, chairman of LS Electric Co., Ltd.

Based on this, LS Electric is currently planning to challenge the world's four biggest power infrastructure companies. As of the third quarter of last year, Schneider Electric (about 11.716 trillion won) had the largest sales of its power infrastructure-related business units, followed by Siemens (about 9.1499 trillion won), Eaton (about 6.676 trillion won), and ABB (about 5.7591 trillion won). Although there is still a gap with LS Electric's third-quarter sales (1.21 trillion won), the strategy is to catch up by targeting the global market.

"We will continue to increase our market share in the global power infrastructure market dominated by the four major companies," an LS Electric official said. "We also plan to continue to expand domestic and foreign investments."

In fact, LS Electric is continuing its investment in the U.S. to target the North American market. In 2023, it purchased 46,000 square meters of land and auxiliary facilities in Bathrop, Texas, and plans to renovate the building on the land to build a production facility. In addition, since last year, it has been responding to customer demands by resident human resources including sales, R&D, and after-sales service. LS Electric also acquired 'MCM Engineering', a local distribution system company in the U.S., in 2022.

* Source : https://www.mk.co.kr/en/business/11207719