"Heavy Industries Disappear"... Companies Changing Their Image

Changing the Mission and Moving Forward with New Business

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] More companies are changing their names and adopting a 'new look.' This is interpreted as an effort to reflect a future-oriented challenge in new businesses by changing names that convey an old and fixed perception.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the heavy industries group’s founding by changing its name to 'HD Hyundai' and attempting to transform into a technology-centered group.

At the regular general meeting of shareholders held on the 28th, Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings' name change proposal was approved. HD Hyundai explained that the name embodies the meaning of realizing 'Human Dreams' through the 'Human Dynamics' energy possessed by people.

In particular, it aims to shift its role from a manufacturing-centered image to an investment holding company.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings established Avikus, a specialized company for autonomous ship navigation solutions, last year through investment in new business sectors, achieving Korea’s first fully autonomous ship navigation. It also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for joint investment worth 1 trillion KRW with the Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) to acquire global companies and invest in equity.

Through its investment-specialized subsidiary Hyundai Future Partners, it acquired Mediplus Solution, a mobile healthcare service company, and formed a 34 billion KRW investment fund with Mirae Asset Group to discover and nurture promising ventures in digital healthcare and bio sectors, continuing its investments.

Doosan Heavy Industries also recently changed its name to 'Doosan Enerbility' at its regular shareholders meeting.

'Enerbility' is a coined term combining energy and sustainability. It signifies the commitment to enrich human life through energy technology and make the Earth cleaner to ensure sustainability.

So far, Doosan Heavy Industries has expanded its business into new sectors such as 3D printing and waste-to-energy while fostering gas turbines, hydrogen, offshore wind power, and small modular reactors (SMR) as growth businesses.

Posco Terminal, responsible for logistics operations of the Posco Group, also changed its name to 'Posco Flow' starting from the 1st. Posco Terminal confirmed the name change to Posco Flow at an extraordinary shareholders meeting on the 29th of last month.

Reborn in January as the company handling integrated logistics operations for the Posco Group, Posco Terminal decided that the existing name could not adequately represent the company’s purpose and direction, thus adopting a new name. It signifies a company creating a new flow in the logistics industry through symbiotic activities as an eco-friendly, smart logistics company.

Recently, Posco Gangpan changed its name to 'Posco Steelion,' KG Dongbu Steel to 'KG Steel,' and Hanjin Heavy Industries changed its name to 'HJ Heavy Industries' at the end of last year. Hanwha Total also changed its name to 'Hanwha TotalEnergies' following the name change of its shareholder TotalEnergies.

An industry insider said, "As corporate image becomes more important, even intermediate goods companies, not just consumer goods companies, are changing their names one after another. In the past, companies changed their names due to group breakups or mergers and acquisitions (M&A), but recently, it stems from attempts to bring about new changes."