New President & CEO Choi Byung-gil delivers his inaugural speech while taking office at Tongyang Cement & Energy Corp.

Sampyo Industry President & CEO Choi Byung-gil has been selected to take the helm at Toyang Cement & Energy Corp., which Sampyo Industry has acquired recently. Sampyo Executive Vice President Chung Dae-hyun, the sole son of Sampyo Group Chairman Chung Do-won, was also appointed to be a senior executive vice president of Toyang Cement & Energy Corp. at the cement maker’s extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on Oct. 22. 

Sampyo Group executives, including President Lee Jung-soo, Senior Executive Vice President Kang Hyung-gyu, Senior Executive Vice President Kim Jong-oh, and Managing Director Chung Han-ryul, and Assistant Managing Director Chung Jin-ho, were named as executives of Tongyang Cement & Energy. 

Sampyo Industry, the nation’s second biggest ready-mixed concrete maker, took over a 54.96 percent stake in Tongyang Cement & Energy, the nation’s fourth-biggest cement maker, for 794.3 billion won. Sampyo Group said the name of Tonyang Cement & Energy will be retained until next year’s plenary shareholders’ meeting when it is to be changed. Tongyang Cement & Energy will not undergo restructuring, as it does not overlap with Sampyo Industry subsidiaries. 

Sampyo Group Chairman Chung had a long-time belief that his company had to acquire a large-sized cement maker to go for more growth. Sampyo Industry, a flagship company of the business group, ranks 2nd in the Korean ready-mixed cement market, but the company lacks growth since it is sandwiched between construction companies and cement makers, which provide raw materials for ready-mixed concrete. 

Sampyo Industry’s sales network was limited to the Seoul metropolitan area. The company’s acquisition of Tongyang Cement & Energy, with its nationwide sales networking, has capped a vertical integration ranging from basic materials, including aggregates and iron scrap to ready-mixed concrete as well as wider marketing network. 

New Tongyang Cement & Energy President Choi said, “Sampyo Industry and Tongyang Cement & Energy will complement each other as a good business partner to corroborate each company’s weak points, and we have secured a foundation to have diverse synergic effects.” 

He went on to say that Sampyo and Tongyang groups now have to move forward with a sense of creativity and challenging spirit, through innovation and human development as they are now in the same boat with a common destiny. 

Choi said his company aims at rising to be a leader with a competitive edge by expanding the basic construction materials business by 2020 through choice and concentration. 

Sampyo Industry and Tongyang Cement & Energy’s combination of their R&D capabilities will enhance the quality of construction materials and levels of Korean structures, he added. 

Sampyo Industry received 2.2 million tons of cementer from Sungshin Cement and other cement makers to produce ready-mixed concrete annually. 

Tongyang Cement & Energy is now the supplier of the cement to Sampyo Industry. The Korean cement industry will likely undergo remarkable changes as Sampyo Industry has acquired Tongyang Cement & Energy, and creditors of Ssangyong Cement, the No. 1 cement maker, want to put it on the block.

Former Sampyo Industry President Choi is inaugurated as the new president of Tongyang Cement & Energy Corp. Sampyo Industry acquired at the cement maker’s extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on Oct. 22.(Photos:Tongyang Cement & Energy Corp)