A global heavyweight in infrastructure

In April last year, Doosan Corp. chairman Park Yong-maan was invited to the 21st Asia Business Conference hosted by the prestigious Harvard Business School in Boston, U.S.

The conference gave Park a chance to present the story of the group’s dramatic transformation from a domestic consumer goods and liquor producer into a global infrastructure builder in 20 years. Behind the drastic change of Doosan in a short time were, above all, successful merger and acquisition deals at home and abroad.

During his speech, titled “Doosan, a global growth outlier,” Park released a variety of data and figures on the success of the group’s core business-infrastructure support business, or ISB.

ISB, which covers the power and water plant, marine engine and construction equipment businesses, made up some 90 percent of the group’s total revenue in 2011. In 1988, Doosan had generated 70 percent of its revenue from consumer-centered businesses.

Along with the shift in its business portfolio, Doosan has undergone globalization. The group’s overseas revenue grew to 58 percent of total revenue in 2011 from 12 percent in 1988. Its overseas workforce also made up 50 percent of total personnel in 2011, compared with 0.2 percent in 1998.

“Our portfolio adjustment was made in order to establish our position as a business that can continue growing in the global arena,” Park said in the conference, adding that the group’s investments to strengthen its new business core would continue, regardless of changes in external business environment.

Six affiliates of the rising global infrastructure builder ― Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, Doosan Infracore, Doosan Engine, Doosan Construction and Engineering, Doosan Corporation Mottol, and Doosan Industrial Vehicle ― lead Doosan’s new core business areas.

Among them, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has raised its global competitiveness in such areas as nuclear power plants and desalination plants. The company, in particular, has held dominant market leadership in the nuclear power plant business, compared with other local heavy industries companies. Its nuclear power plant division is equipped with a fully integrated production and management system that covers materials procurement, component design, fabrication, maintenance, and repair and replacement services. In 2009, the company was selected as the nuclear steam supply system provider for the nation’s first nuclear power plant export project to the United Arab Emirates.

In the desalination business, Doosan Heavy ranked first in the world in 2011. It has patented technologies for each of the three major desalination methods: multistage flash distillation, multi-effect distillation and reverse osmosis.

Construction equipment maker Doosan Infracore is another global brand in Doosan’s ISB. It has raised its global brand awareness in the construction equipment sector since acquiring U.S.-based Bobcat in 2007. Bobcat has a global production system spread over North America, Europe and Asia, providing skid-steer loaders, compact excavators, mini and compact track loaders, and Toolcat utility work machines to work sites around the world.

The recent global economic downturn and changes in countries’ nuclear energy policies after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident have affected the rising Doosan Group, but chairman Park pledged in his 2013 New Year’s message that the group would continue to push for the ISB-driven growth strategy for the group’s sustainable future.

By Seo Jee-yeon  (jyseo@heraldcorp.com)