Invest KOREA

(SUWON=Yonhap News) Kiekert, the world's largest car window lock manufacturer based in Germany, will set up a production facility in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Nam Kyung-pil, the governor of Gyeonggi Province, signed an investment MOU with the auto parts supplier at a hotel in the western German city of Aachen on November 16, 2016 (local time). The signing ceremony was attended by Guido Hanel, Executive Vice President of Kiekert and Lee Young-ho, Head of Kwangjin Industries Poland.

Kikurut will establish a production facility with a land area of ​​9,900 square meters in the Jangan High-tech Foreign Investment Zone 2 in Hwaseong City through a joint investment amounting USD 24 million with a domestic auto parts manufacturer Kwangjin Industries and Gyeonggi Province.

Headquartered in Heiligenhaus, near Düsseldorf, Germany, Kikurut is a German hidden champion founded in 1857. Its annual sales reach KRW 942.5 billion.

The company, which developed the world's first electric drive lock, now supplies parts to major global automakers such as BMW, Ford and Daimler. It currently holds 20% of share in the global market for car locks.

As the German automotive component maker moves in Gyeonggi Province, automobile door parts, which have largely been dependent on imports, will be produced in the domestic market. This will result in import substitution of KRW 340 billion over the next five years and creation of more than 200 new jobs.

"This MOU is a meaningful outcome achieved between a German company committed to developing innovative technology and a Korean company striving to produce car door components," provincial governor Nam said, expressing his hope for stronger partnership going forward.

kwang@yna.co.kr

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Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (Nov. 16, 2016)

** This article is translated from Korean.