Figure1: Dr. Alexander Nürnberg (Managing Director of HATLAPA Uetersener Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co KG), Mr. Young-Hyun Roh (President of Dong Sung Co Ltd) and Mr Sang-Kon Ok (General Manager of Dong Sung Co Ltd) during signing ceremony
HATLAPA and Dong Sung now become partners after having had an agency agreement for more than 15 years. During the next 3 years both companies will jointly invest 4 million USD into HATLAPA KOREA.
The factory will be located in the Busan Science Park of the Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone (BJFEZ) and factory construction has now started. On an area of nearly 8.000 m² an assembly shop and an office building will be erected and construction shall be finished by end of February 2007. Production will then commence in March.
Figure 2: Construction work on site
In the beginning, HATLAPA KOREA will concentrate on the sales and production of ram-type steering gear for the Korean market. Later, exporting and deck machinery assembly shall follow.
HATLAPA KOREA is a fully operational and independent company doing sales, design, procurement, production, delivery, commissioning and quality assurance for all products. For this, a total of 14 employees are hired and this number is expected to grow to 30 employees in 5 years.
This new company integrates the products and technical know-how of HATLAPA with the market access and sales knowledge of Dong Sung. The most integrated and modern steering gear manufacturer and one of the very successful sales agents are teaming up to re-organize their market strategy for Korea.
By this, Korean shipyards and international shipowners can make use of the combined advantages of both companies.