Hyundai Rotem looks to hydrogen equipment for new growth

Hyundai Rotem Co., a South Korean railway system and plant equipment maker, said Wednesday it will venture into the hydrogen infrastructure market to secure a new growth driver.

Hyundai Rotem plans to supply hydrogen-charging facilities after completing the technology transfer of hydrogen reformers, equipment that extracts hydrogen from natural gas, from Japan-based Osaka Gas Engineering within this month, the company said in a statement.

The company has received orders to supply three hydrogen reformers to be used in the government's hydrogen business projects, Hyundai Rotem said.

It aims to achieve sales of 110 billion won($92.4 million) in the hydrogen charging facility market in 2022 and 350 billion won in 2025 amid growing awareness of hydrogen-powered vehicles and rising demand for environment friendly vehicles.

The hydrogen energy market is expected to grow to 3,000 trillion won in 2050, accounting for 18 percent of global energy demand, the company said, citing the Mckinsey report titled "Hydrogen scaling up, 2017."

In January, South Korea announced it will have an accumulated 2.9 million hydrogen vehicles running on the street by 2040 and will increase the number of hydrogen charging stations to 310 by 2022 and to 1,200 by 2040 from the current 37 across the country.

Hyundai Rotem is an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, which plans to invest 7.6 trillion won in hydrogen car-producing facilities and related research and development activities by 2030.

The group plans to churn out 500,000 hydrogen vehicles in 2030 as it moves to morph into a future mobility solutions provider. A hydrogen car is considered to be environmentally friendly since it emits only water vapor as it generates electricity. (Yonhap)