South Korea’s leading chemical and textile company Hyosung Corp. will be ramping up annual airbag cushion output to near 40 million units from Mexico, having begun activating a new plant there.

According to Hyosung on Wednesday, it has completed the building of an airbag cushion textile factory in Torreon, Mexico that will churn out textile enough to make 30 million units of airbag cushion every year. The company kicked off the factory operation one year and five months after it broke ground in April, 2016.

Following the completion of the airbag cushion textile factory, the company will be able to save cost and raise efficiency now that it can produce both textile and finished airbag cushion in Mexico. The company has been running another factory in Ensenada, Mexico with annual capacity of 9 million units of airbag cushions per year.

With the new textile factory, Hyosung aimed to up its airbag cushion output in the country from current 9 million units to nearly 40 million units. The company also vowed to invest $54 million in its airbag cushion production sites in Mexico by 2021 to improve productivity to meet fast growing demand.

“Considering Mexico’s proximity to North America and cheap labor cost, our productivity is expected to improve significantly,” said an official at Hyosung.

The Mexican airbag market estimated at 21.2 million units in 2016 is expected to grow to 34.6 million units by 2021.

By Kang Young-woon

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