Chairman John Koo. Chairman Koo of LS-Nikko Copper.

LS-Nikko Copper, Korea’s largest nonferrous metal company, is accelerating efforts to pursue digital transformation with the goal of rising to a leading international metal leader.

LS-Nikko Copper, a core unlisted subsidiary of LS Group, posted 7.45 trillion won in sales and 268 billion won in operating profit last year as mainstay products such as electrolytic copper, precious metals, rare metals and sulfuric acid led in rising profitability.

LS-Nikko Copper’s 2018 sales were similar compared to the previous year, but operating profit soared as much as 30 percent during the period.

It was noteworthy that the company, with some 550 executives and staff members, showed outstanding profitability with profit per person standing at about 8.8 billion won. The figure was higher compared to other Korean companies, including Samsung Electronics, which posted some 2.4 billion won in profit per person and POSCO, which recorded about 3.8 billion won per employee.

The achievement was owed to LS-Nikko Copper’s strengthening work efficiency through “smart work” via IT system upgrades under the stewardship of Chairman John Koo.

Chairman Koo recently stressed three management strategies - innovating competitiveness of refinery business, management system upgrade based on digital transformation, and innovation of industrial structure - by making the most of field experiences all staff members had accumulated.

In particular, the digital transformation LS-Nikko Copper implemented is expected to lay the groundwork to ramp up business competiveness. Among them, IT system upgrades are evaluated to lead to smart work, which improves work efficiency. To this end, LS-Nikko Copper introduced computing software such as robotic process automation (RPA) and e-voucher.

Smartification evolves in office space. There are zones for exclusively holding meetings and space for concentration outfitted with sound-proof facilities. Phone booths are installed in several locations in office, but printers, paper-shedding machines and other gadgets are placed in different spaces.

Starting with the second half of the year, LS-Nikko Copper plans to build “Onsan digital smelter (ODS).” a smart factory process connected with telecom network, designed to automate production. The scheme is designed to not only max out efficiency of the Onsan Smelter, the world’s second largest producer, but also aim at rising to a global smelter encompassing the stability of production, safety and environment protection.

A LS-Nikko Copper said ODS is an advanced conception focusing on automation and being unmanned from the conventional smart factory, and the global smelting industry and mining companies watch it closely.

About LS-Nikko Copper

LS-Nikko Copper is a metal resource company launched as a joint enterprise between LG Metal and JKJS Consortium from Japan in 1998.
After decades of unabated passion and innovation efforts, LS-Nikko Copper is standing tall as a major player in the global metal industry.

And at the same time, LS-Nikko Copper has grown as one of the major growth engines of LS Group, significantly contributing to its profit generation.

Recently, LS-Nikko Copper is seeing the resource industry emerging as a core industry for the future. Tapping into its years of experience and knowledge, LS-Nikko Copper is committed to boosting its growth in a longer term.

A view of LS Tower in Yongsan, Seoul. (Photos: LS-Nikko Copper)