Hyundai Steel (004020.KS) is joining forces with HanmiGlobal (053690.KS), South Korea’s leading construction project management (PM) firm, to target the steel materials market for advanced industrial facility construction, including artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and semiconductor production plants.
Hyundai Steel announced on August 20 that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with HanmiGlobal on August 19 at Pangyo Office in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, to strengthen technological competitiveness in the construction sector.
Under the agreement, the two companies will analyze and apply construction steel materials—including fire-resistant steel and high-strength H-beams—from the design stage to supply steel structure models optimized for advanced industrial facility projects such as data centers and semiconductor production facilities.
A steel structure refers to a construction method in which a building’s primary frame is designed and built using steel materials. Data centers have traditionally been dominated by concrete structures, including precast concrete (a method of assembling pre-fabricated concrete components on-site like blocks) and post-tensioning (a technique that inserts high-strength steel tendons into concrete members and tensions them to reinforce load-bearing capacity). However, interest in steel frame construction has been growing recently due to its advantages in shortening construction timelines and improving cost efficiency.
Accordingly, the two companies plan to expand the applicability of steel structures in new data center construction and actively leverage Hyundai Steel’s “total package” capability that encompasses all steel grades.
A Hyundai Steel official said, “Through collaboration with HanmiGlobal, we will secure leading technological competitiveness in steel materials for advanced industrial facilities such as data centers and generate demand for high-performance steel products.”
Meanwhile, Hyundai Steel established a “Next-Generation Power Infrastructure Sales Expansion Task Force Team (TFT)” in March and has been aggressively targeting the data center steel materials market in response to the increase in large-scale data center construction driven by expanding AI demand.
This agreement is significant in that it comes amid a shift in data center construction methods from concrete-centric to steel structure-centric approaches. As demand for hyperscale data centers surges with the proliferation of AI services, the advantages of steel frame construction—particularly shorter construction timelines—are gaining prominence. Hyundai Steel expects to enhance its competitiveness in winning data center projects by combining HanmiGlobal’s design and management capabilities with its own steel supply capacity.
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