Daedong Metals, a cast metal materials and parts manufacturing affiliate of the Daedong Group, has moved to overhaul its business structure. It plans to expand its portfolio beyond the traditional auto and agricultural machinery focus into future industries such as defense, semiconductors, robots, and smart farms, while driving manufacturing AX (AI transformation) to lead innovation in Korea's root industries.
Lee Pung-woo, CEO of Daedong Metals, held a press briefing in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 2nd and said, "Based on high-value precision casting, advanced materials, and manufacturing AX, we will transform into a future-industries materials and parts company." Lee, who came from Daedong, the group's core agricultural machinery manufacturer, took office as CEO of Daedong Metals in 2023. Along with Chairman Kim Jun-sik of the Daedong Group, Lee serves as co-CEO of Daedong Metals.
Founded in 1947, Daedong Metals is a leading domestic castings specialist that, based on 79 years of accumulated casting expertise, produces cylinder heads and blocks for agricultural machinery and automobile engines, main control valves (MCV) for industrial construction machinery, cylinder heads for ships, and vacuum pump parts for semiconductors. Last year it posted 101.8 billion won in revenue and 1 billion won in operating profit.
About 64% of current revenue comes from the automobile and agricultural machinery sectors. Automobiles account for 43% and agricultural machinery 21%, while the semiconductor sector is around 20%.
Daedong Metals plans to significantly increase the share of future industries while maintaining competitiveness in its core businesses. In particular, it will foster materials and parts businesses for defense, semiconductors, robots, and smart farms as new growth pillars, aiming to lift the combined share of the robot and smart farm businesses to 28% of total sales by 2030.
It will also expand the share of overseas sales, currently at about 7%, to 30%, focusing on Japan, Europe, and the United States. Through this, Daedong has set a goal of achieving 240 billion won in revenue and 12.5 billion won in operating profit by 2030.
The core of the overhaul is high value-added precision casting technology and advanced materials development. While existing cast iron materials have high strength, their heavy weight poses limits for future industries rapidly shifting to electrification and lightweighting. In response, Daedong Metals will develop high-strength lightweight materials and new alloys.
Daedong Metals will work with the Korea institute of Materials Science (KIMS) to jointly develop new alloys for use in joint and reducer cases and actuator housings for Humanoid Robot applications, robot arm frames, and lightweight parts for electric vehicles, urban air mobility (UAM), and drones. After building a pilot line, the company aims to complete customer performance verification in 2029 and begin full-scale revenue generation.
The company will also push into the smart farm field in connection with the group's future businesses. The Daedong Group has been selected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs as the lead corporation for the national agriculture AX platform and is preparing to build an AI greenhouse in Muan, South Jeolla Province, and Daedong Metals plans to supply the smart farm structural components to be used there.
The domestic greenhouse smart farm market is expected to grow to 9.4 trillion won by 2030. With about 35% of that classified as demand for structural components, Daedong Metals, leveraging its precision casting technology, is targeting its first sales in 2027 and plans to expand supply through follow-up projects in Saemangeum and Gangjin. In the mid to long term, it aims to broaden the business to the materials market for agricultural robots.
Daedong Metals will also pursue AX at its Daegu plant. With support from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, it will launch a 400 million won manufacturing AI project this year and invest about 1.2 billion won next year to build an AI-based autonomous plant. By applying AI-based quality prediction and predictive maintenance, autonomous production control, unmanned operations, and carbon emission monitoring, the company aims to simultaneously raise productivity, quality, cost, and delivery competitiveness.
In particular, it presented a goal of overcoming the structural constraints of the casting industry, which has high carbon emissions, through AI-based process optimization, high-efficiency equipment operations, and the use of eco-friendly energy such as solar power, and completing the build-out of an ESG-based smart factory by 2030.
CEO Lee Pung-woo said, "Casting is the root of manufacturing, but it must now evolve into an advanced materials industry that supports future industries," adding, "By expanding high value-added precision casting, developing new alloys, and advancing manufacturing AX, we will shift our business structure centered on automobiles and agricultural machinery to future industries such as defense, semiconductors, robots, and smart farms, while continuously increasing corporate value."