South Korea’s Hyundai Wia Corp., an auto parts making unit of Hyundai Motor Group, has become a sole mass-producer of turbochargers, core components for internal combustion engines, after ending joint production with Japanese auto parts maker IHI Corp., according to Hyundai Wia on Friday.

The company set up Hyundai Wia IHI Turbo Corp. (HWIT) in 2013 jointly with IHI in Seosan, South Cungcheong Province, to reduce its heavy reliance on turbocharger imports and produce the component with its own technology. But the joint business partnership has been terminated after Hyundai Wia that had previously owned a 51 percent stake in the joint venture acquired the other 49 percent stake held by IHI. Hyundai Wia said it will maintain technological partnership with the Japanese company.

A turbocharger, a key component for a gasoline turbo engine or diesel engine, significantly enhances engine’s power output by converting waste exhaust energy into mechanical energy. It can provide extra engine power of up to 60 percent to a 1,600 cc gas engine.

Hyundai Wia expects to save costs by more than 20 percent by mass producing the car part at its local facilities without the partner’s help.

The Seosan manufacturing plant produces 200,000 turbochargers a year for Kia Motors’ Gamma gasoline engines and A2 diesel engines. The company has set a goal to increase the output capacity to 1.2 million units per annum by 2020.

Hyundai Wia also aims to broaden its presence in the global market by promoting the price competitiveness of its turbochargers. The company has been expanding the production line to make one-stop production available from component processing to final assembling. It has set up a quality monitoring team inside the plant to ensure the turbochargers produced in the facility to go through 19 quality tests.

“We will work hard to raise our competitiveness in the global turbocharger market dominated by foreign part makers that take up more than 80 percent market share,” said Woo Nam-je, chief executive officer of HWIT.

As of 3:00 p.m. on Friday, shares of Hyundai Wia rose 0.3 percent to 67,500 won in Seoul trading.

By Woo Je-yoon

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