HD Construction Equipment opens Gunsan engine plant, targets AI data center power market

HD Construction Equipment completed a new engine factory in Gunsan, North Jeolla, as it targets growing demand for power generation engines at AI data centers, the company said Wednesday.

The machinery firm will begin mass production of the DX37, a 37-liter engine that powers 1.3-megawatt generators, in Gunsan in the first half of next year. A 77-liter, 3-megawatt model will follow in 2028, and a 50-liter, 2-megawatt model in 2029.

The plant can make 1,250 large engines a year for power generators in the 1- to 3-megawatt range and 120 tank engines a year. It can also make up to 1,460 megawatt-hours of battery packs a year, enough for about 9,400 electric buses.

The plant will also handle a long-term rise in tank engine orders and supply more battery packs for commercial vehicles, construction machinery and industrial use.

The company spent 116.8 billion won ($87 million) over about two years to build the plant on a 62,700-square-meter (15.5-acre) site at its Gunsan campus. Assembly robots, autonomous mobile robots, equipment that detects quality defects in advance and an integrated control tower improve quality and production efficiency.

HD Construction Equipment aims for 2.5 trillion won in engine sales by 2030, nearly double the 1.3 trillion won it posted last year.

“We will respond to new energy demand, realize future technologies and take the lead in creating new business opportunities,” HD Construction Equipment President Moon Jae-young said at the completion ceremony. “Through this, we will become a company that grows together with the local community.”

BY KIM HA-YOON [[email protected]]