Chairman Yang Jae-saeng meets Hwashin Bolt executives to explore new market entry

Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Yang Jae-saeng visits Hwashin Bolt Industry Co. on Tuesday to hold a CEO roundtable. [Provided by Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry]
Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Yang Jae-saeng visits Hwashin Bolt Industry Co. on Tuesday to hold a CEO roundtable. [Provided by Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry]

The Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry has launched an initiative to help local companies undergoing business restructuring successfully scale up and break into new markets.

Chairman Yang Jae-saeng visited Hwashin Bolt Industry Co. in Saha-gu on Tuesday morning and held a CEO roundtable with co-CEOs Jung Soon-won and Jung Tae-hyung. The head of the Dongnam Regional Business Restructuring Field Support Center, a Busan city corporate policy liaison and a corporate ombudsman also attended.

Founded in 1964, Hwashin Bolt Industry produces specialty bolts for extreme environments — including power generation, nuclear energy, oil drilling and shipbuilding — and generates more than 80 percent of its specialty bolt sales for gas turbines from overseas markets.

As the company pursued its transition to new industries, it received tailored consulting from the chamber's Dongnam Regional Business Restructuring Field Support Center and last year won government approval for a restructuring plan centered on entering the small modular reactor components market using high-temperature heat treatment technology.

Building on that approval, the company is now applying its existing manufacturing technology for nuclear power plant components to SMR-dedicated bolts and nuts, developing the segment as a new core business. The outlook for market entry has brightened further as the government has designated Busan a key hub for SMR commercialization and stepped up its support.

Over the medium to long term, the company plans to leverage its expertise in specialty alloy processing and precision bolts and nuts to enter the aerospace components market, diversifying from its current focus on power generation, shipbuilding and oil drilling into future energy and advanced industries.

CEO Jung Soon-won said securing skilled workers was the central challenge in translating the restructuring into expanded investment and sales. He said it was difficult to find specialists in specialty alloys, design, precision machining and quality control for the SMR and aerospace sectors, and asked for support in developing tailored talent pipelines linking local universities, research institutions and companies, as well as help attracting outside experts.

Jung also raised the issue of securing a site for expanding and relocating production facilities. The company is planning equipment investment and production space expansion to meet new demand, but finding industrial land with the required area and location conditions has proved difficult, he said, calling for institutional support in providing relevant information and securing investment sites.

Chairman Yang said the success of business restructuring depends not on winning plan approval alone, but on actually generating investment, sales and jobs in new markets. He added that he would work actively with relevant agencies to ensure the challenges heard at Tuesday's meeting translate into concrete support.


kaf2002@heraldcorp.com