Hyundai L&C is moving to expand its production capacity for ‘engineered stone (Khanstone).’ In addition to the production lines already running at its domestic Sejong plant (1 production line) and in Canada (2 production lines), the company has decided to build an additional production line in Korea.
Engineered stone is a premium engineered marble made with more than 90% natural quartz. Compared with engineered marble made from synthetic resin, it is far less prone to surface scratches and damage, and with a water absorption rate close to 0% it leaves no stains from kimchi liquid and the like, driving growing demand for kitchen countertops, flooring and similar applications. Hyundai L&C entered the engineered stone market in 2004 under the ‘Khanstone’ brand.
Hyundai L&C, a comprehensive building-materials company under the Hyundai Department Store Group, announced that it will invest 47.3 billion won to build the ‘Sejong Khanstone No. 2 Production Line’ at its Sejong plant (located in Bugang-myeon, Sejong Special Self-Governing City). Construction of the ‘Sejong Khanstone No. 2 Production Line’ will break ground in mid-month and is scheduled to enter full-scale operation in the first half of 2022.
Once the ‘Sejong Khanstone No. 2 Production Line’ is completed, Hyundai L&C will be able to produce 1.1 million ㎡ of Khanstone annually in Korea, double its previous domestic capacity. Including the Khanstone produced on the existing ‘Sejong Khanstone No. 1 Production Line’ and the No. 1 and No. 2 production lines at the Canadian plant (Ontario), the company will be able to produce 2.2 million ㎡ of engineered stone per year. This production scale ranks fourth in the global engineered stone market, following Spain’s Cosentino, Israel’s Caesarstone and the United States’ Cambria.
Hyundai L&C has also signed a contract with Italy’s Breton to introduce engineered stone production equipment. Breton is the only stone-processing equipment maker in the world that holds the core technology for manufacturing engineered stone, and most global companies that produce engineered stone use Breton’s equipment.
In particular, under this contract, the ‘Sejong Khanstone No. 2 Production Line’ will be equipped with Breton’s robotic machinery, which can reproduce intricate wave patterns indistinguishable from natural marble to the naked eye. A company official explained, “With the introduction of the robotic equipment, we can now produce in Korea the premium Khanstone products currently made on the No. 2 production line in Canada.” In addition, the company will be able to produce wide-format products (3300×1650㎜) that are about 28% larger in area than the existing standard-format products (3050×1400㎜).
Beyond investing in domestic engineered stone production facilities, Hyundai L&C also plans to enhance the quality competitiveness of its Canadian production lines. To this end, it will additionally introduce to the Canadian plant during the first half of this year the same Breton robotic equipment being applied to the ‘Sejong Khanstone No. 2 Production Line.’ The company expects that this will raise the share of premium Khanstone products in its output from the current 35% to 50%.
▲ Hyundai L&C is adding a new domestic production line to the lines already operating at its existing Sejong plant in Korea and in Canada. The photo shows a view of Hyundai L&C’s Sejong plant located in Bugang-myeon, Sejong Special Self-Governing City.