With the upcoming inauguration of the Donald Trump administration Friday, there are signs among South Korea’s leading manufacturers that they might speed up plans to establish new production facilities in the US.

Companies with flagship products that have significant shares in the American market, particularly home appliances, have been facing increased pressure from the incoming US president, who has openly vowed protectionism.

Most recently, Hyundai Motor, the country’s top automaker, officially announced Tuesday a plan to construct a new plant that may produce sport utility vehicles or luxury Genesis vehicles in the US.

LG Electronics is one of the companies mulling a new plant construction plan. All of the company’s home appliance products are currently manufactured in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, and Mexico.

“It is true that the level of consideration has been much more heightened internally this week,” a source told The Korea Herald on Wednesday. “The company might make a final decision faster than it intended, as others have started to move.”

LG Electronics CEO Jo Seong-jin confirmed the company had been considering the possibility for a long time at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month.

He also said a final decision would be made within the first half of this year.

Although the CEO did not reveal specific locations, there were speculations that LG’s new manufacturing base is most likely to be built in Nashville, Tennessee.

“We have been considering various plans, and the aforementioned location is one of them,” said a spokeswoman at LG. “Due to the readjustment of the production volumes of worldwide plants, the final decision may take time.”

Some of the production volume at LG’s Mexico and Vietnam plants might be reduced and relocated to a new factory in the US, according to a public relations officer. The company’s Changwon factory may also suffer a blow if it decides to hand over the volume being exported to the US. The decision will depend on tariffs Trump slaps on those foreign goods.

LG’s archrival Samsung Electronics has also been reviewing building a home appliance plant in the country in response to President-elect Trump’s protectionist policies, as North America is the company’s largest home appliance market.

“A higher possibility is that the company could expand the production capacity of Dacor plants rather than building a separate one,” a Samsung spokesman said.

Samsung acquired the luxury built-in home appliance brand in the US last September with an aim to increase its presence in the American market.

However, its plan may be postponed due to the Samsung heir apparent Lee Jae-yong’s politically awkward position at the moment.

“We are in a difficult situation to announce such a new investment plan considering the ongoing domestic issue,” he added.

Experts showed mixed views on the companies’ moves to appease the incoming Trump government.

“The positive side of such a move is that Korean businesses are taking pre-emptive measures against unpredictable changes under the new US government,” said Yu Byoung-gyu, president of the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade. “However, the Korean government needs to consider measures to retain domestic investments by those companies at the same time.”

Some criticized the announcements by Hyundai Motor and Japan’s Toyota to build new plants in the US, describing them as “surrendering to Trump’s threat.”

“It wouldn’t be easy for businesses to ignore such a threat by the world’s super power,” an economics pundit who requested anonymity said. “It is too early to make such a decision even before Trump inaugurates, because we never know how Trump might change his mind.”

“Trump is a smart businessman, so he is highly likely to make deals with individual companies at different levels, which raises uncertainty for businesses at the moment,” he added.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)