Hyundai L&C Completes ‘Hanex Plant’ in the U.S.

Hyundai L&C is picking up the pace in expanding its engineered stone production capacity. Following the ‘Canstone Plant Line 1 (established in 2009)’ and ‘Line 2 (established in 2017)’ in Canada, its Hanex plant in Texas, U.S., has been completed and will enter full-scale operation starting in May.

‘Hanex,’ produced at this U.S. plant, is an MMA (methyl methacrylate)-based solid surface material used primarily as a building finishing material for kitchen furniture, countertops, and countertops in commercial facilities such as hospitals, schools, and museums, while ‘Canstone’ is an engineered stone product made with 99%-purity quartz.

Hyundai L&C, a comprehensive building-materials company under the Hyundai Department Store Group, announced that on May 16 (local time) it held the completion ceremony for its ‘U.S. Hanex plant,’ operated by ASML (American Surfacing Materials LCC), a joint venture established with ‘Wilson Art,’ a U.S. building-materials manufacturer and distributor.

The completion ceremony was attended by key executives from both companies, including Hyundai L&C CEO Yoo Jeong-seok and Wilson Art CEO Tim O’Brien, as well as Kim Hyung-gil, Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Houston, and Tim Davis, Mayor of Temple.

Earlier, in 2017, Hyundai L&C established the joint venture ASML with Wilson Art for the purpose of building the ‘U.S. Hanex plant’ and handling local distribution in the U.S., and broke ground on the Hanex production plant.

Located in Temple, Texas, U.S., the ‘U.S. Hanex plant’ spans 33,057㎡ and has an annual production capacity of 300,000 sheets. This is equivalent to about 40% of the total Hanex production capacity in Korea.

An official from Hyundai L&C explained, “This plant marks the first case in which a Korean building-materials company has exported solid surface manufacturing technology overseas to jointly establish a plant,” adding, “Wilson Art is the world’s No. 1 company in high-pressure laminate, which is mainly used as a surfacing material for furniture and offices, and by joining hands with our company, which has high-quality solid surface production capabilities, we have established a top-tier plant in North America.”

In particular, Hyundai L&C plans to accelerate its push into the North American solid surface market with the establishment of this plant. To this end, taking into account the U.S. residential landscape with its many single-family homes and large apartments, the U.S. Hanex plant is equipped with facilities capable of producing ‘wide-format products (1,520×3,680×12㎜)’ that double the width of existing products (760×3,680×12㎜). A wider product allows for stable placement over large areas and makes it possible to render uninterrupted flowing patterns similar to those of natural marble.

Yoo Jeong-seok, CEO of Hyundai L&C, said, “Through local production in the U.S., we have secured price competitiveness and raised our B2B order competitiveness a notch by reducing delivery lead times to a quarter of those under the previous domestic-production-and-export model,” adding, “We also plan to significantly expand our dedicated local sales organization to strengthen our sales competitiveness.”