The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will hold a briefing Thursday to introduce about 10 energy infrastructure and fertilizer plant projects worth billions of dollars — secured through talks with the US government — to South Korean construction companies and trading firms. Pictured is the Indorama fertilizer plant No. 3 built by Daewoo Engineering & Construction. The image is not directly related to the article. [Daewoo Engineering & Construction]
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will hold a briefing Thursday to introduce about 10 energy infrastructure and fertilizer plant projects worth billions of dollars — secured through talks with the US government — to South Korean construction companies and trading firms. Pictured is the Indorama fertilizer plant No. 3 built by Daewoo Engineering & Construction. The image is not directly related to the article. [Daewoo Engineering & Construction]

South Korea is seeking construction companies and trading firms to take on more than 10 infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport secured through negotiations with the US government. The projects include energy infrastructure and fertilizer plants proposed by the American side.

The ministry will hold a briefing Thursday afternoon in Seoul — titled "Briefing on Construction Projects Introduced by the US Government" — to present the infrastructure cooperation opportunities to South Korean companies. About 40 executives and officials from construction firms and trading companies interested in entering the US market have been invited. The US Embassy in Seoul will also send representatives.

Around 10 projects proposed by the US government through high-level intergovernmental discussions will be introduced at the briefing. Among them is a synthetic graphite plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee — a project to produce 50,000 metric tons annually, developed by NOVONIX Anode Materials.

A potassium chloride plant in Osceola County, Michigan, is designed to produce about 800,000 metric tons of fertilizer-grade and industrial potassium chloride and about 1 million metric tons of food-grade and industrial salt per year. The project is estimated to cost $1.9 billion.

The Willow Rock energy storage facility, to be built in Kern County, California, is a high-efficiency compressed-air energy storage system with a capacity of 500 MW and 4,000 MWh, with a projected cost of $2 billion.

In Gothenburg, Dawson County, Nebraska, a urea plant is being pursued at a cost of $1.2 billion. The facility would produce about 360,000 metric tons of urea ammonium nitrate solution, about 140,000 metric tons of ammonium sulfate, and about 50,000 metric tons of diesel exhaust fluid per year.

In Richland, Washington, a $1.5 billion plant is being developed to produce about 650,000 metric tons of ammonia annually.

The ministry said all of the projects are large-scale, long-term, investment-driven undertakings involving multiple stakeholders, and that both governments plan to cooperate to ensure their smooth execution.

This government-to-government (G2G) model — identifying projects through diplomatic channels and matching them with South Korean companies — is expected to expand further. When South Korean firms express interest, the ministry said it will connect them with project developers, financial institutions and public institutions, and will actively support their overseas expansion by forming "Team Korea" consortiums.

First Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim I-tak poses for a photo with Kyle Haustveit, US Deputy Secretary of Energy (left), after signing a memorandum of understanding for a lithium and boron plant development project in Nevada on July 7 (local time). [Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport]
First Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim I-tak poses for a photo with Kyle Haustveit, US Deputy Secretary of Energy (left), after signing a memorandum of understanding for a lithium and boron plant development project in Nevada on July 7 (local time). [Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport]

The groundwork for Team Korea's US push has been building for months. After Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yun-deok visited the United States in January and the US Department of Energy proposed Korean participation in energy infrastructure construction projects, a lithium and boron plant project in Nevada took shape. In July, First Vice Minister Kim I-tak traveled to the US and signed a memorandum of understanding on project participation, further strengthening the foundation for Team Korea's overseas expansion.

An earlier example of the model came from a floating liquefied natural gas project in Louisiana, where the ministry's Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment's green fund, and the Korea Ocean Business Corporation under the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries invested a combined 200 billion won ($145 million). Samsung Heavy Industries subsequently won an engineering, procurement and construction contract worth about 4 trillion won out of the project's total cost of 7 trillion won, marking a landmark case of Team Korea's overseas expansion.

Kim Seok-gi, director general of construction policy at the ministry, said the key to generating visible results through the dispatch of contract-support teams is "quickly connecting the cooperative projects identified through government-to-government diplomatic activities to our companies." He added that the ministry would "provide all-around support to dramatically improve the chances of our companies winning contracts by combining strategic financial backing."


smh@heraldcorp.com