SeAH Besteel Holdings Co., Ltd. (Co-CEOs Tae-sung Lee and Soo-ho Kim) announced that it will make a strategic investment to strengthen its position in the global aerospace materials market, which is entering a phase of structural growth, and to secure new future growth engines.

On October 28, the company revealed that its subsidiary, SeAH Aerospace & Defense Materials Co., Ltd. (CEO Chang-mo Sung), will build a new high-strength aluminum plant in Changnyeong, Gyeongnam Province, with an annual production capacity of 770 tons. The investment for the first phase totals KRW 58.8 billion, and the facility is scheduled for completion in the first half of 2027, with commercial production beginning in the second half of the year. The company plans to supply high-strength aluminum materials to global aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, EMBRAER, and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). Further capacity expansion is also planned by 2034, which will increase the total investment to approximately KRW 100 billion.

The new plant will feature state-of-the-art production lines, including advanced extrusion presses and heat treatment systems. It will produce core aluminum materials for aircraft fuselage and wing structures. In particular, the company will introduce Korea's first rapid-quenching heat treatment system, which rapidly cools materials from high temperatures to achieve superior strength, corrosion resistance, and toughness—further reinforcing SeAH's technological competitiveness in aerospace-grade aluminum.

This investment comes as SeAH Aerospace & Defense continues to accelerate its transition from traditional steel to high-value aerospace and defense materials amid the ongoing stagnation of the global steel market. In the first half of this year, the company recorded KRW 66 billion in sales, KRW 13.4 billion in operating profit, and an operating margin of 20.3%, marking its highest-ever half-year performance since its founding.

The global aerospace materials market is expected to experience robust growth. According to the Global Aerospace Materials Market Report (2023) by the Korea Aerospace Industries Association, the market is projected to grow from KRW 44 trillion in 2022 to KRW 102 trillion in 2032, representing an increase of approximately 132%.

A representative from SeAH Besteel Holdings stated, "The establishment of SeAH Aerospace & Defense's new aluminum plant marks a decisive step to secure leadership in the high value-added aluminum segment within the global aerospace market, whose growth potential has been validated by data," adding, "Leveraging our proven expertise in high-strength aluminum production, we aim to become a key supply chain partner to global aircraft manufacturers and strengthen our position as Korea's leading aerospace and defense materials company."