South Korean auto giant Hyundai on Monday announced a multibillion-dollar investment in the United States, including a new $5.8 billion steel plant.
The plant, which will be based in Louisiana, will create 1,300 jobs in the U.S., Hyundai executive chairman Euisun Chung told reporters at a White House event alongside President Trump. The move will also serve “as the foundation for a more self-reliant and secure automotive supply chain in the U.S,” the car executive added.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs on companies that do not shift manufacturing jobs to the U.S. from overseas.
In response, domestic and foreign firms, including Apple and Oracle, have announced plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into U.S. projects over the next four years. In February, the iphone maker said it planned to invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four year, including a new manufacturing plant in Houston, Texas.
“Hyundai will be producing steel in America and making its cars in America, and as a result they’ll not have to pay any tariffs,” Mr. Trump said, noting that the steel plant would be the Korean automaker’s first in the U.S. The investment is “a clear demonstration that tariffs very strongly work,” he added.
Hyundai Steel, an affiliate of the automaker, will build an electric arc furnace steel mill in Louisiana that can produce 2.7 million tons of steel per year, the company said in a news release. The company also said it will invest $6 billion as part of deepening its collaboration with U.S. companies in areas including self- driving cars, robotics and artificial intelligence.
