LG Hausys, a construction materials firm and affiliate of LG Group, said Wednesday it has completed the construction of a factory in the U.S. in Gordon County, Georgia. The factory will produce materials for car seats, door panels and dashboards, collectively often referred to as automotive skins.

The opening ceremony for the factory, dubbed “Autoskin Plant,” took place in the U.S. town on Tuesday. 

“Since it first set its foot in the U.S. market in 2004 by establishing a factory for imitation marble, LG Hausys has grown to a company that earns $310 million in sales (annually) and employs 400 people,” said LG Hausys president Oh Jang-soo at the opening ceremony.

The event was attended by around 100 guests, including local state representative John Meadows, Mike Grundmann, a director of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, and Kim Seong-jin, the Korean consul general in Atlanta.

LG Hausys has invested $40 million to build the manufacturing facilities sitting on a 9,000 square meters of land.

The company will roll out 6 million square meters of automotive skin materials for seat covers per year at the factory.

Those automotive skins will be supplied to global car companies, including Hyundai Motor Company, Kia, GM and Chrysler.

In order to meet the increasing demand for automotive skins in the U.S. market coupled with the increasing shipments of cars, the Seoul-based company plans to add additional factories for materials for dashboards and door panels.

LG Hausys, which runs manufacturing factories in Ulsan, Korea and Tianjin, China, now has manufacturing bases in China and the U.S., which together account for more than 40 percent of car production.

The company is the third-largest player in the global sector for auto skins, with market share surpassing 15 percent.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)