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The first announced supplier for Hyundai’s new electric-vehicle and battery plant in Bryan County shows how foreign investors who helped drive the Southeast U.S.’s initial automotive renaissance could also be part of its next phase.
Joon Georgia Inc., which last week said it would invest $317 million and hire 630 people in nearby Bulloch County, where Statesboro is the seat, is a subsidiary of Korea’s Ajin Industrial Co. Ltd. The company in 2008 set up shop near the Georgia-Alabama border to supply body components to Hyundai’s landmark Montgomery factory.
Located in Cusseta, Ala., along the Korean automotive corridor that emerged between Montgomery and the Kia Motors plant in West Point, Ga., Ajin USA’s first plant operated under the name Joon LLC, churning out stamped metal assemblies and automotive electronic components.
Announced two weeks after groundbreaking on the $5.54 billion Hyundai Metaplant, which will include a battery joint venture and is reportedly considering assembling multiple models in the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis electric-vehicle lineup, Joon Georgia became the first in what is expected to be a wave of Korean suppliers headed to coastal Georgia.
“Hyundai Motor Group, its suppliers, and the Savannah area (joint development authority) are creating generational opportunities for communities in Georgia. Supporting the jobs of tomorrow is a team effort, and regional collaboration ensures that those benefits are shared across county lines,” said Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson, in a news release. The
With $1.1 billion in total supplier investment factored in, Hyundai said the new plant will bring about 8,100 jobs for Georgians.
The plant will sit on a 2,923-acre site jointly purchased by the state of Georgia and the Savannah Harbor-Interstate 16 Corridor Joint Development Authority, which includes the counties of Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham and Effingham.
Clearing on the site is nearing completion, and construction is set to begin in January. Hyundai plans to begin making vehicles at the site by 2025, if not sooner.
Ajin’s site will be located in the Bruce Yawn Commerce Park in Statesboro.
Georgia Quick Start, the state’s workforce training agency, is set to assist the company with a customized training package to fill available positions. Hiring is expected to begin in the middle of next year, a year beforethe planned start of production.
Ajin is based in Gyeongsan, just outside of the metropolitan city of Daegu, an auto parts powerhouse in the southern part of Korea and a sister city of Atlanta. Global Atlanta visited Daegu on a recent reporting trip to South Korea in August.
Jung Ho Sea, CEO of Ajin USA, said his company’s “commitment is to not only be the best parts supplier for automotive and EV companies like Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, but to also be the best employer and corporate citizen and give back to the great community of Bulloch County and the City of Statesboro.”
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