YANTAI: With Doosan Infracore China Co Ltd lifting it's a veil yesterday in this coastal city of East China's Shandong Province, South Korea's Doosan Corporation formally took control of Daewoo Heavy Industries Yantai Co Ltd.

Doosan, a privately held company, is now formally at the helm of the subordinate firm that was previously affiliated with Daewoo Heavy Industries (DHI) of South Korea.

After a two-to-three-year transitional period, company officials say Doosan Daewoo will replace the original Daewoo brand name.

"The co-branding strategy is to minimize the influence of the handling of the change and to smoothly introduce the Doosan brand in the Chinese market. In the end, Doosan will stand for quality and credit for our Chinese customers," Choe Sung-chul, president of South Korea's Doosan Infracore, said yesterday.

"Our establishment and presence here represents the beginning of Doosan's large-scale entry into the Chinese market. We aim to turn the company into a global leader among in the international infrastructure support business arena. Purchasing excellent companies, including foreign ones, is a major strategy to achieve our goal of fast-paced growth," the president explained.

Doosan Infracore is one of the affiliated companies of the renowned Doosan Corporation. With 109 years of history, Doosan Corporation is currently South Korea's ninth-largest company. It is comprised of 20 affiliated companies, all of which focus primarily on infrastructure support business, and consumer products and services. It makes more than 100 kinds of products, ranging from foods and beverages to the world's No 1 seawater desalination plant. On April 29, Doosan Corp formally merged with DHI Korea, the principal investor behind DHI Yantai.

DHI Yantai is a well-managed company capable of making 10,000 excavators, 3,000 forklifts and 1,100 machine tools a year. It had sales last year of US$435 million. Founded in October 1994, the company has become the No 1 excavator manufacturer in China over the past several years.

Kenneth, J. Chae, general manager of Doosan Infracore China, said the merger and acquisition is a normal business activity, and will not have negative influences on the company's management, production, research and development or financing.

(China Daily 07/05/2005 page10)