Chairman Cho Suk-rae of Hyosung Group in his New Year’s address said the group should secure sustainable growth capacity to cope with all kinds of changes in the business environment so that it can hold on to its top position in the global business community this year.

The chairman also urges every officer and staff member of the group to work hard to maintain the group’s global-level capacity through detailed analysis of the market and customers.

Cho said the group was able to maintain its competitive power at high levels for a number of core products such as spandex, heavy electric equipment, and chemicals, and he hoped that the same performance results would also be maintained this year.

In order to expand its No. 1 market share of spandex around the world, the group built production plants in a number of countries last year including China and Turkey to increase the output of the textile product. This year, the group will try to expand the market for the product to boost its dominance of the product, taking advantage of the expanded output of the product around the world.

In order to meet various market demands, the group will take on the development of various types of Creora, Hyosung’s patented spandex yarn, such as the environmentally friendly kind, and the kind that is easy to dye, among others, under the segregated marketing strategy for the product to meet customer demands, so that more profits can be made by producing and selling more high value-added products.

As for heavy industrial products, the group will try to improve its profits by expanding into new global markets, especially in emerging market nations. The group secured the 270 billion won power network expansion project in Qatar last year. This year, the group will look to expand its market shares in the United States and the Middle East and open new markets in South America and Southeast Asia.

The group will also attempt to expand its industrial product markets globally, making better use of its long-term supply agreement with Goodyear for steel cord, as well as hard on expanding further its 40 percent global market share for polyester tire cord. The group will also push global sales of its car tire strengthening material to keep its dominant position in the global market for the products.

In 2011, Hyosung developed the neutral carbon textile with its own technology and has also succeeded in developing high-function carbon textile for the first time in the world, whose production (2,000 tons) will begin at the Jeonju Environmentally Friendly Industrial Complex in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province in the first half of this year.

The carbon textile developed by Hyosung will be used at all kinds of industrial plants with a huge import substitute effect for Korea, especially from the United States and Japan.

The annual global market for carbon textile is projected to grow to $5 billion by 2020.

Class Hyosung, the official dealer of Mercedes-Benz in Korea, obtained the first CCM (Consumer Centered Management) certification as well as CCM recertification in December 2012 in the automotive industry. The CCM recertification was obtained by passing more than 100 difficult standards in 2008 and receiving the first CCM certification in the automotive industry in January 2009, after which they received favorable evaluations in CCM operation, improvement performance, innovative customer service development, and implementation status.

CCM indicates that all activities of a company are customer centered and are continuously improving, which is evaluated by the Korea Consumer Agency and certified by the Fair Trade Commission on whether the company is operating these activities well. The program was confirmed and officially announced in September 2005, and certification is given every 2 years. Only companies that can promptly deal with consumer complaints or damages while protecting their rights can receive CCM certification. The name was changed in 2011 from CCMS (Consumer Complaints Management System) to CCM.