Ssangyong C&E Launches, Rebounds as a 'Comprehensive Environmental Company'

[Asia Economy Reporter Junhyung Lee] Cement company Ssangyong Cement has changed its name to 'Ssangyong C&E' and has reemerged as a comprehensive environmental company.

Ssangyong C&E held a new name declaration ceremony on the 26th and changed its corporate name from Ssangyong Cement to Ssangyong C&E. The company also set a goal to expand the proportion of its environmental business to about 50% of total profits by 2025, moving away from its traditional cement-centered business model.

The new name, Ssangyong C&E, retains 'Ssangyong' while adding 'C&E,' which stands for Cement and Environment. According to the company, this reflects the employees' commitment to making eco-friendly business a core future value and continuing sustainable development. Since its founding in 1962, Ssangyong C&E has focused on the cement business, but with this name change, it plans to expand its business areas into the environmental sector.

On this day, Ssangyong C&E announced its new vision, 'Green2030,' and expressed its intention to fully implement ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management starting this year.

The company declared strategies and key goals for practicing ESG management, including building a resource-circulating society through coal phase-out and eco-friendly self-power generation facilities, strengthening corporate social responsibility activities, and securing a fair and transparent management system.

To achieve its vision, Ssangyong C&E became the first in the domestic cement industry to declare ESG management innovation last December and decided to continue active investment and management innovation activities centered on the dedicated ESG Management Committee for sustainable development.

Large-scale investments to realize coal phase-out and reduce pollutant emissions will also continue. Ssangyong C&E relies entirely on imported bituminous coal, a fossil fuel used in cement production, which causes issues such as nitrogen oxide emissions during combustion. From 2018 to last year, Ssangyong C&E invested over 100 billion KRW to replace bituminous coal with circular resources such as waste plastics and to build related infrastructure. As a result, the use of bituminous coal was reduced from about 1.5 million tons annually in 2019 to 1 million tons last year.

In line with the government's 2050 carbon neutrality vision, Ssangyong C&E will continue investing to fully replace bituminous coal with circular resources by 2030. This is the first goal in the domestic cement industry to achieve zero coal usage.

Chairman Hong Saseung of Ssangyong C&E said, "With the name change as a turning point, we aim to become a comprehensive environmental company leading the creation of a clean future environment," adding, "We will do our best to actively participate in achieving carbon neutrality through expanding eco-friendly businesses and to continue sustainable development."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.