Producing ‘Premium Canstone’ that outperforms natural stone, driving to capture Korea’s reconstruction and remodeling market

Hyundai L&C is accelerating its push into Korea’s reconstruction and remodeling market by expanding its premium ‘engineered stone (Canstone)’ production line equipped with state-of-the-art facilities.

Hyundai L&C, a comprehensive building-materials company under Hyundai Department Store Group, announced that it held a completion ceremony for the ‘Sejong Canstone No. 2 Production Line’—built with an investment of approximately 50 billion won at its Sejong plant—and has entered full-scale operation.

Canstone is an ‘engineered stone’ made with more than 90% natural quartz. With higher surface hardness than natural stone, it is more resistant to scratches and breakage, and with a water absorption rate close to 0%, it is highly resistant to staining and corrosion. Hyundai L&C entered the engineered stone market in 2004 under the brand ‘Canstone’ and is currently the No. 1 company in domestic market share. In recent years, demand has been growing not only for kitchen countertops but also for accent walls, flooring, and more.

With the operation of the Sejong Canstone No. 2 Production Line, Hyundai L&C is expected to be able to produce 1.1 million ㎡ of Canstone annually in Korea—double its previous capacity. Including the Canstone manufactured on the existing ‘Sejong Canstone No. 1 Production Line’ and on the No. 1 and No. 2 production lines at its plant in Canada (Ontario), the company can now produce engineered stone on a scale of 2.2 million ㎡ per year. This production scale ranks fourth in the global engineered stone market, following Spain’s Cosentino, Israel’s Caesarstone, and the U.S.’s Cambria.

Like the No. 1 Production Line that has been operating since 2004, the new Sejong Canstone No. 2 Production Line was built with engineered stone production equipment from Italy’s Breton. Breton is the world’s only stone-processing equipment maker to possess the original core technology for manufacturing engineered stone, and is known for the overwhelmingly superior precision and aesthetic quality of the patterns it produces. All of the companies leading the global market use Breton’s equipment, and in Korea, Hyundai L&C is the only company that has introduced and operates a full engineered stone production line from Breton.

In particular, the Sejong Canstone No. 2 Production Line will specialize exclusively in producing ‘Premium Canstone,’ an upgrade over the standard Canstone made on the existing No. 1 Production Line. Unlike standard Canstone with solid colors or simple patterns, Premium Canstone is characterized by a rich variety of patterns—such as wave and layered patterns—so refined that they are visually indistinguishable from natural stone.

To produce Premium Canstone, Hyundai L&C has introduced a large array of cutting-edge equipment on the Sejong Canstone No. 2 Production Line. It became the first in the world to introduce ‘Creos,’ Breton’s latest equipment capable of reproducing the layered patterns and translucent properties characteristic of quartzite, the finest natural stone, and it is equipped with a ‘robotic automation system’ that can naturally express the wave patterns characteristic of natural marble. In addition, it can produce wide-format products (3300×1650㎜) that are about 28% larger in area than the existing standard-format products (3050×1400㎜), maximizing processing efficiency.

Following the operation of the Sejong Canstone No. 2 Production Line, Hyundai L&C plans to launch about 20 new premium products by next year, expanding its Canstone lineup from the current 30 or so items to around 50. In particular, Hyundai L&C plans to accelerate its push into Korea’s reconstruction and remodeling market by pursuing a so-called ‘two-track strategy’ that leverages standard Canstone and Premium Canstone respectively.

Through this, Hyundai L&C has also set a goal of expanding next year’s domestic engineered stone business revenue by about 50% compared to last year. In the mid-to-long term, the company’s strategy is to continuously increase its share of the global engineered stone market, including in the U.S., by leveraging the Premium Canstone produced on the Sejong Canstone No. 2 Production Line.

Lee Jae-gak, Executive Director and Head of the Interior Stone Business Division at Hyundai L&C, said, “Through this expansion of the Sejong Canstone No. 2 Production Line, we plan not only to capture the domestic reconstruction and remodeling market but also to expand product supply to the furniture and interior industries,” adding, “Through Premium Canstone, we will solidify our standing as a company that leads trends not only in Korea but also in the global engineered stone market.”

▲ Exterior view of Canstone No. 2 Production Line

▲ Interior view of Canstone No. 2 Production Line


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