LS Group Looks to Lead Transition to CFE and Future Industries

Director Goh Ui-gon (left) of Submarine Cable Global Sales Division at LS C&S and President David Fu of Foxwell Energy attend a ceremony to strike an agreement on the supply of undersea cables at Foxwell Energy Headquarters. (Photo: LS C&S)

LS Group, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is accelerating corporate activities to grow as a leading carbon free electricity (CFE) core partner.

LS Group said the group chalked up 36,345.1 billion won in sales and 1,198.8 billion won in operating profit last year, the best-ever business performance.

LS Group Chairman Koo Ja-eun said, “LS Group’s achieving the best-ever business performance last year is owed to its executives and staffers’ cultivating well the seed, sowed by former chairman Christopher Koo, and I’ve just reaped it.”

“Starting this year, LS Group will make efforts to achieve the “Vision 2030” and further make a leap forward by producing the buds of future growth businesses, sowed by Koo Ja-eun based on the conventional mainstay businesses,” Chairman Koo said.

The Vision 2030 future roadmap revealed by Chairman Koo at a New Year’s gathering calls for a transition to a core partner leading CFE and future industries.

Chairman Koo said, “The common task of the whole world for next 30 years can be summed up as net zero, and the core of net zero is CFE.” He said transition to a CFE era would serve as a new growth opportunity for LS with mainstay businesses, such as electricity and energy industries.

Under the vision, he said, LS Group will double the value of assets, now standing at 25 trillion won, by 2030 to become a global market leader company. To this end, LS will invest a combined over 20 trillion won for next eight years.

LS Dedicates Nickel Sulfate Plant

LS Group dedicated a nickel sulfate plant capable of producing 5,000 tons annually, at Toricom’s worksite in Asan, Chungcheongnam-do, on March 27.

The move is part of efforts to ramp up the key material for next-generation EV batteries.

Toricom is an investment company of the nonferrous metal company LS MnM, specializing in recycling precious metals, such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium.

Toricom, Korea’s largest urban mining company, posted 320 billion won in sales last year. LS MnM produces crude nickel sulfate to Toricom, which in return produces nickel sulfate for secondary batteries through impurity refinement and crystallization.

LS C&S Concludes Cable Supplier Agreement Worth 110 Billion Won in Taiwan

LS C&S said on March 23 that the company will be supplying submarine cables worth approximately 110 billion won to the wind farm constructed off the west coast of Taiwan by the Taiwan Power Company (TPC).

LS C&S concluded the agreement with the Foxwell Energy, an energy enterprise based in Taiwan and the constructor in the upcoming construction project.

As a result, LS C&S has won all the supplier rights for extra-high voltage submarine cables for the eight projects under the First Offshore Wind Farm Project in Taiwan.

The total contract amount as of now is approximately 900 billion won and the company expects additional orders once the agreement above moves forward.

LS C&S has also further strengthened its cooperation with other global offshore wind business operators such as Ørsted and CIP based in Denmark, Jan De Nul based in Belgium, and WPD based in Germany through their respective projects as it continues to accelerate expanding in the European and North American markets.

Taiwan is planning to finish the construction of a 5.5 GW wind farm through the first project by 2025 and build another 15 GW wind farm by 2035.

These farms would have a capacity equivalent to approximately twenty 1-GW nuclear reactor units.

An LS C&S spokesperson stated, “With the additional orders being placed this year, we expect the submarine cable market to be worth approximately two trillion won,” and added, “We are exploring ways to expand our business through our cooperation with KT Submarine and entering the construction market based on our superb submarine cable manufacturing capabilities and experience.”

LS C&S has recently acquired shares in KT Submarine, a company specializing in submarine cable construction, and improved its construction capabilities.

There are only five companies worldwide that can provide both manufacturing and construction of submarine cables, and LS C&S is the only company with such capabilities in Korea.