The five-year investment pledges by South Korea’s business majors have topped 1,000 trillion won ($793 billion), eclipsing this year’s fiscal budget and more than half of last year’s gross domestic product.

After all top five business groups (Samsung, SK, Hyundai Motor, LG, and Lotte) competitively vowed capital investment in two to three digits in billion dollars for future growth, the following ranks POSCO (No. 6 by 2021 asset terms, GS (No. 8) and Hyundai Heavy Industries (No. 9), and Shinsegae (No. 11) announced theirs by Thursday.

POSCO Group pledged Thursday 53 trillion won investment – 33 trillion won at home and 20 trillion won abroad – in future technologies and environmentally-friendly steel business by 2026. Investment will focus on enhancing business competitiveness in key sectors like environmentally-friendly future energy materials like green steel, secondary battery materials, and hydrogen, and green infrastructure to level up its position as an environmentally-friendly future material company, it said.

POSCO will invest 20 trillion won to enhance mainstay steel operation. Investment will be used to shift towards green production system to reduce carbon emissions and to enhance electric vehicle motor-use steel product technology and introduce environmentally-friendly facilities.

It will devote 5.3 trillion won to secure next-generation technology and stable raw materials in secondary battery materials and hydrogen sectors. About 5 trillion won will be spent in green infrastructure sector such as energy, construction, and food businesses. The company has also set aside 2.7 trillion won in venture investment and research and development to gain upper hand in future business.

POSCO will also directly hire 25,000 employees by 2026.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Group earmarked 21 trillion won investment over the next five years. Out of the total, 12 trillion won will be spent to digitize three major businesses – shipbuilding, construction machinery, and energy.

Hyundai Heavy Industries will also invest 7 trillion won for environmentally-friendly research and development in ocean floaters, fuel cell, water electrolysis, and hydrogen complex energy charging station.

In shipbuilding sector, the group will focus on establishing a hydrogen transportation value chain such as environmentally-friendly vessel materials, carbon capture technology, and hydrogen and ammonia propelled vessels. In construction machinery sector, it will concentrate on battery-based machinery equipment development and in energy sector, carbon reduction technology and green bio technology development.

Hyundai Heavy Industries will also spend 1 trillion won in boosting synergy through big data platform and leading autonomous vessel sector.

Hyundai Heavy Industries will hire 10,000 new employees including 5,000 in R&D over the next five years.

GS Group announced 21 trillion won investment scheme for the next five years and 22,000 new employment. Out of the total, 14 trillion won will be spent on energy sector such as petrochemicals, blue ammonia, small module reactors, renewable energy, and overseas resource development, 3 trillion won in retail and service sector such as enhancing information technology and expanding retail base and logistics infrastructure, and 4 trillion won in construction and infrastructure sector.

Nearly half of the investment – 10 trillion won – will go to new businesses and venture areas to create a win-win ecosystem with startups.

Shinsegae Group matched with 20 trillion won investment over the next five years to enhance synergy in offline and online retail businesses.

The sudden gush of capex was opened by No. 1 Samsung Group and Hyundai Motor, timed with the first summit meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the Solidarity for Economic Reform, a civil watchdog of big companies, called upon the Korea Exchange to require the business groups to disclose detailed action plans to their investment plants as they so far have been rhetorical.

“Despite the impact on the management of related companies, the investment plans lack details aside from rounded figures and investment areas.” It said.

By Lee Yu-sup, Park Yun-gu, and Lee Eun-joo

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