Philippines invites Hyundai Rotem to put up manufacturing facilities

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Ambassador to Korea Raul Hernandez is urging Hyundai Rotem, Co., which bagged a $440 million contract to supply trains for the LRT-7, to put up manufacturing facilities in the country.

Hernandez, in a recent meeting with Kim Seung-tak, president and CEO of Hyundai Rotem in the company’s headquarters in Uiwang, Gyeonggi province, said having a manufacturing base in the Philippines would give the Korean firm easy access to serve the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) community.

The Philippine envoy also invited Hyundai Rotem, which has just opened a small office in Manila following the award of the contract, to consider more investments in the country.

Hernandez was joined by Commercial Counsellor Emmanuel Ang and Trade assistant Aija Jeon of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) during the meeting with the Hyundai Rotem chief executive.

Part of the Hyundai Motors Group, Hyundai Rotem specializes in manufacturing train rolling stock and train systems, defense products, and plant equipment.

Last January, the company was awarded the $440.2 million turnkey contract by Universal LRT Corp. to supply 108 train cars, together with signaling, communications, and power supplies for the LRT 7.

Hyundai Rotem briefed Hernandez on the LRT-7 project, which involves the construction of a 22.8-km elevated railway line with 14 stations from an existing station in the MRT-3 interchange at North Avenue, Quezon City to San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan.

The project also involves the construction of a 22-km asphalt road from Bocaue Interchange of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) to the Intermodal Transportation Terminal (ITT) slated for construction in Tala, Caloocan City to help decongest EDSA, Manila’s main circumferential freeway, by diverting provincial buses operating in northern Luzon to the ITT connected to the MRT-7.

The project, which is Hyundai Rotem’s first turnkey metro contract outside Korea, is due to be completed by the middle of 2019.

Kim assured Hernandez of the excellent quality and timely delivery of the train cars. 

The two agreed the project’s successful completion is crucial and could pave the way for Hyundai Rotem’s involvement in more infrastructure and private-public partnership (PPP) projects in the Philippines in the future.