South Korean conglomerate LS Group will establish a winding wire manufacturing facility in Serbia to expand its presence in the European market.

LS Group announced Thursday that its American cable making subsidiary Superior Essex Co. (SPSX) broke ground for the plant in Zrenjanin, about 90 kilometers away from Beograd on Wednesday (local time).

SPSX will invest about 18.5 million euros ($22.9 million) in the manufacturing facility commanding a floor area of 14,000 square meters on a site of 40,000 square meters. The company will establish 42 lines capable of producing 12,000 tons of winding wires by the end of this year and start operation next year.

The group has been aggressively expanding its overseas business. LS Cable & System Ltd. last year set up an electric vehicle parts manufacturing subsidiary in Poland and a retail subsidiary in France. LS Industrial Systems Co. completed construction of a solar power plant and energy storage system in Japan.

LS Cable in 2008 acquired the Atlanta-based SPSX which is the largest winding wire manufacturer and fourth largest communication wire producer by sales in North America. SPSX has overseas operations in more than 10 countries including China, Germany and Italy. It takes up about 20 percent market share in the European market.

SPSX has been showing a sound performance since it returned to profit in 2016. It recorded pretax profit of $58 million and sales of $2 billion last year. It is a sole supplier of motor winding wires to the U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors.

By Woo Je-yoon and Choi Mira

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