Hyundai WIA, a parts affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, is pushing a plan to sell its defense institutional sector to Hyundai Rotem.
According to the industry on the 15th, Hyundai WIA has recently begun working-level preparations to sell its defense institutional sector to Hyundai Rotem. The defense institutional sector has been a foundational business since Hyundai WIA (then Kia Machine Tool) was established in 1976, producing core artillery such as the barrel of the K9 self-propelled howitzer and the main gun of the K2 tank. Sales generated by this institutional sector last year amounted to 400 billion won.
If Hyundai WIA spins off defense, it will continue its business centered on thermal management technology and robots. Hyundai WIA has set a goal of internalizing core thermal management technology applicable to all mobility, including electric vehicles, and entering the global top three in the related field. It also plans to expand its lineup of logistics robots, parking robots, and collaborative robots, and to secure technology to implement fully unmanned factories.
Hyundai Rotem will internalize Hyundai WIA's gun barrel manufacturing technology. However, the industry says that simply bringing in barrels will not yield a strong effect from vertically integrating the weapons system. It says Hyundai Motor Group's defense vertical integration will be complete only if Kia's special-purpose vehicles are also handed to Hyundai Rotem. Kia produces military vehicles such as small- and medium-sized tactical vehicles.
A Hyundai WIA official said about the sale of the defense institutional sector, "Nothing has been decided yet."