Hyundai Rotem holds EcoPlant partnership conference to boost supply chain, expand business opportunities

Hyundai Rotem held the "2026 Hyundai Rotem EcoPlant (EP) Win-Win Cooperation Conference" at its Dangjin plant in Dangjin, South Chungcheong Province, on Tuesday, unveiling plans to strengthen supply chain competitiveness and expand its business portfolio, the company announced Wednesday.

The EP Business Division provides smart logistics systems, mobility production equipment, and industrial automation solutions spanning airport and steel infrastructure. It has been focused on building technological competitiveness and broadening its business scope to keep pace with a rapidly changing industrial landscape.

The conference was organized to expand the role of partner companies in a shared-growth framework and to forge long-term partnerships. Representatives from 30 EP division partner companies and Hyundai Rotem executives attended.

Mirroring co-growth programs already in place for its Defense and Rail Solution divisions, Hyundai Rotem said it will increase financial support for EP division partners to help them build a sustainable growth base. Across all business divisions, the company will operate a co-growth fund totaling 150 billion won ($109 million) this year to help reduce interest burdens on partner firms. It will also work with Shinhan Bank and the Export-Import Bank of Korea to provide 1.5 trillion won in interest-rate relief to further ease financing costs for partners.

Hyundai Rotem also significantly expanded business participation opportunities for EP division partners as part of efforts to build an innovation ecosystem. Partners previously limited to specific projects will now be invited to bid on a broader range of work, enabling them to move beyond their existing business areas into smart logistics, mobility, production equipment, airport facilities, and steel and industrial infrastructure.

The company also extended the scope of partner engagement to include hydrogen equipment, port transfer robots, and railway Electrical and Mechanical (E&M) projects, helping partners secure new business and workloads. Hyundai Rotem plans to more than triple its EP division investment over the next five years, generating a trickle-down effect for partners while laying the groundwork to revitalize the domestic market.

To promote a culture of mutual growth, Hyundai Rotem said it will streamline its technical data request system, provide security licenses free of charge, and offer specialized consulting — including in-house technology security assessments and improvement recommendations — to prevent proprietary information from leaking from partner firms. The company will also expand training programs for partner company employees through its in-house technical education center.

At the conference, Hyundai Rotem launched a "Safety Excellence Partner Award" program to raise safety awareness and encourage proactive safety management among partners, presenting awards to five outstanding companies. The company will select honorees through semi-annual safety evaluations and provide incentives — including cash awards and exemptions from contract performance bonds — scaled to the size of the workforce involved.

"The quality of components supplied by our partners is the very foundation of our finished products' competitiveness," a Hyundai Rotem official said. "We will lead the way in building a culture of shared growth where we can advance together with our partners amid an increasingly sophisticated industrial structure."

Meanwhile, Hyundai Rotem has been actively pursuing a shared-growth management strategy, having recently held the "2026 Hyundai Rotem Rail Solution Win-Win Cooperation Conference" at its factory in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, where it unveiled plans to expand financial support for partners and broaden joint overseas expansion efforts.