Hyundai, supplier companies making another big investment in Georgia

Hwashin America, which has a plant in Greenville, has announced it will build a $176 million plant in Dublin, Georgia.

Hwashin is an auto parts company that supplies several automakers. It plans to hire more than 460 employees for its Georgia facility, which is expected to start production in 2025.

The company will make metal pieces for auto chassis for both the new Hyundai Motor Group plant being built in Ellabell, Georgia, as well as for sister company Kia in West Point, Georgia, which is just a few miles from the Alabama state line off of Interstate 85.

It’s the latest company to announce a plant to supply Hyundai’s $7.6 billion plant to assemble electric vehicles and batteries in Ellabell, near Savannah. The Hyundai plant, which was announced last year, could grow to 8,500 employees and could begin producing vehicles as early as 2024.

Suppliers to the Hyundai plant have pledged to invest more than $2.4 billion and to hire nearly 6,300 people.

Based in Yeongcheon, South Korea, Hwashin established a plant in Greenville to supply Hyundai’s Montgomery assembly plant in 2003. It has expanded multiple times and now employs 750 people, according to the Butler County Commission for Economic Development, supplying parts to other manufacturers including Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The state of Georgia will pay to train workers. Hwashin could qualify for $9.2 million in state income tax credits, at $4,000 per job over five years, as long as workers make at least $31,300 a year. Local officials could also grant property tax breaks. The company is acquiring 60 acres from part of a larger site that local officials had already cleared and graded.

Dublin is about 50 miles from Macon.

(Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)