Riding AI wave, LS Electric seizes Asean as next power bastion

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Riding AI wave, LS Electric seizes Asean as next power bastion

Published: 16 Jul. 2025, 17:01 Updated: 16 Jul. 2025, 18:33

SARAH CHEA
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Visitors flock to LS Electric's booth at Elecs Vietnam 2025 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in Ho Chi Minh City on July 16. [SARAH CHEA]

HO CHI MINH CITY — It may not yet be peak travel season, but a convention center in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City is teeming with delegates and visitors from around the world, drawn not to a popular attraction but to a power systems exhibition few outside the industry would recognize by name.

“We've been sourcing power systems including switchgears from LS Electric for the past twenty years, and their products strike a good balance, delivering good quality at highly competitive prices,” said Tran Viet Cuong, deputy director at Consrich Vietnam, a Hanoi-based industrial equipment manufacturer, during his visit to the Korean company’s booth at Elecs Vietnam 2025 held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center, on Wednesday.

“Most of all, they deliver on schedule, while Japanese brands like Mitsubishi require significantly longer lead times.”

As the AI era dawns and electricity consumption surges, power systems providers that generate, transmit and distribute electricity are quietly reaping the rewards. Korean firms, including LS Electric, HD Hyundai Electric and Hyosung Heavy Industries, have claimed the largest booths at the exhibition, eagerly showcasing their latest products.

“The power industry has entered a new era of a ‘supercycle on steroids,’ driven by the proliferation of data centers, the expansion of zero-carbon energy and the convergence of AI and advanced digital technologies,” said Koo Ja-kyun, Chairman and CEO of LS Electric, during his opening remarks at the event. “Vietnam, with its dynamic industrial growth and rapidly expanding digital infrastructure, is emerging as the pivotal market of the Asean region.”

LS Electric CEO and Chairman Koo Ja-kyun, second from right, tours Elecs Vietnam 2025 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in Ho Chi Minh City on July 16. Koo also serves as the chairman of the Korea Electrical Manufacturers Association, the main host of the exhibition. [SARAH CHEA]

Asean: Next stop for K-electricity

With ample land available and low electricity costs, the Asean region is emerging as a strategic global hub, attracting major tech giants like Amazon and Google, who have already announced investments totaling $10 billion in the coming years.

LS Electric believes that the fastest and most seamless path to breaking into the Asean market is to leverage its manufacturing capabilities and resources already in place in Vietnam — a country that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has called his hopeful "second home."

“Taking Vietnam as our strategic hub, we’re pivoting to the Asean region as the next big market after the cutthroat North American one,” Kim Jong-woo, chief operating officer at LS Electric, told the Korea JoongAng Daily at the event.

“It’s no longer just K-food and K-culture, it’s now K-electricity.”

LS Electric was the first Korean company to enter Vietnam in the mid-1990s and has maintained its No.1 position with over 40 percent of market share. It newly opened its Bac Ninh plant last year, significantly expanding its local production capacity totalling $25 million to some $40 million annually. It has been involved in several major state-run projects in Vietnam, including Hanoi’s Landmark 72 in 2009 and the Mong Duong 1 Power Plant in 2012.

A “Smart Factory” zone at the booth showcased the company's automation systems capable of monitoring real-time production metrics, conducting quality inspections, and optimizing overall equipment efficiency without human intervention.

HD Hyundai Electric's switchgear is on display at Elecs Vietnam 2025 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in Ho Chi Minh City on July 16. [SARAH CHEA]

LS Electric is partnering with Microsoft and Nvidia to upgrade its smart factory technologies, with the ultimate goal of selling them to "global manufacturers, regardless of industries, like battery, chip and biopharmaceutical makers."

HD Hyundai Electric prominently showcased its switchgear at the event, a sector in which it competes directly with LS Electric. Historically, some 90 percent of its power system sales came from ultra-high-voltage transformers.

“Our switchgears are more compact than those of LS Electric or Hyosung, allowing for more efficient use of factory space,” an HD Hyundai Electric spokesperson told the Korea JoongAng Daily. “Currently, orders of our ultra-high-voltage transformers are fully maxed for the next five years, and now we are expanding our portfolio to switchgears."

A visitor takes a look at LS Electric's power system product at Elecs Vietnam 2025 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in Ho Chi Minh City on July 16. [SARAH CHEA]

Riding Big Tech’s AI data center wave

With a booming young workforce and low labor costs, coupled with a geopolitically neutral posture amid U.S.–China tensions, global tech big names are zeroing in on the Asean region as its next destination for AI data centers.

Google plans to invest $2 billion to build a data center and cloud facility in Malaysia, along with $1 billion in Thailand. It poured a total of $5 billion into opening four data centers in Singapore.

Amazon Web Services has also announced a $5 billion investment in Thailand and $6.2 billion in Malaysia to open new data centers. It doubled its investment in Singapore to $9 billion to scale up its cloud infrastructure. For Indonesia, the company has pledged a long-term investment exceeding $5 billion.

Microsoft is also making significant moves in the Asean region, committing $2.2 billion in Malaysia for AI and cloud services, and investing an additional $1.7 billion in Indonesia.

The three largest Korean power system providers — LS Electric, HD Hyundai Electric and Hyosung Heavy Industries — host booths at Elecs Vietnam 2025 at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in Ho Chi Minh City on July 16. [SARAH CHEA]

The industries in those Asean countries are largely boosted by massive financial aid and infrastructure support from their governments.

The Malaysian government has significantly liberalized its investment environment with the likes of tax incentives, tariff exemptions and relaxed labor regulations to attract global companies.

Vietnam set a goal of securing a total power generation capacity of 150 gigawatts and producing roughly 567 terawatt-hours of electricity annually by 2030, some double the output recorded in 2020. This projection reflects an anticipated annual increase in electricity demand of around 9 to 10 percent, driven by rapid industrialization and urbanization.

The Asean region’s average capital expenditures in the power sector are projected to surge to $200 billion in 2030, from $56 billion in 2025.

BY SARAH CHEA [[email protected]]