Sarfaraz Ahmed

Hyundai Elevator Company

Hyundai Elevator was established on May 23, 1984 under a joint venture between Hyundai Heavy Industries and Westinghouse Elevator of the United States, who held an equity shares of 60% and 40% respectively. At that time, Hyundai produced elevators under license from Westinghouse although it began to develop its own elevator models in he late 1980s. In 1985, Hyundai exported its elevators to Indonesia. In 1989, the joint venture between Hyundai and Westinghouse was terminated as Westinghouse's elevator business was acquired by Schindler. In 1993, Hyundai expanded its business outside South Korea by establishing a joint venture in Shanghai, China, known as Shanghai Hyundai. Hyundai developed the YZER (initially Space Saver) machine room less elevator in 1999, which is the first machine room less elevator system in South Korea. In 2006, Swiss elevator company Schindler purchased a 25.5% of Hyundai Elevator's stake, who attempted to take over the company. However, this acquisition has led to a management conflict between the two companies, with Hyundai having no intention to sell the company to Schindler. Eventually, Schindler's stake was reduced through a capital increase by Hyundai in July 2015 which caused Schindler to suffer losses and in 2018, Schindler sued Hyundai over its losses caused by the capital increase[2]. Despite the dispute, Schindler remains one of the three shareholders of Hyundai Elevator, who currently holds a 15.50% stake (as of February 2020). Since 2007, it has been ranked as the largest elevator manufacturer in South Korean, followed by ThyssenKrupp Elevator Korea and Otis Elevator Korea. In 2009, Hyundai developed an ultra high speed elevator with a speed of 1080 m/min (or 18 m/sec) known as The EL.