Dive Brief:
- Hyundai Motor Group plans to invest $21 billion in its U.S. operations, the automaker announced Monday.
- President Donald Trump, Hyundai Executive Chairman Euisun Chung and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry jointly announced the investment from the White House, where Trump has made onshoring U.S. manufacturing a key tenet of his domestic agenda.
- As part of the investment, Hyundai plans to build a $5.8 billion steel plant in Louisiana. The facility is slated to create more than 1,300 jobs and will supply Hyundai's electric vehicle production at plants in Georgia and Alabama.
Dive Insight:
Hyundai has been pouring major capital into its U.S. manufacturing network in recent years. The company began operations last fall at its $7.4 billion Georgia EV plant, with plans to scale production later this year.
The upcoming steel plant will produce more than 2.7 million metric tons of steel per year, Trump said in his remarks. The facility is Hyundai's first steel plant in the U.S., and will help the Georgia and Alabama factories produce more than one million vehicles a year, the president said. Construction is slated to begin in Q3 2026, according to the state.
The news comes just over a week before the president's self-declared "liberation day," when he plans to impose new tariffs on a variety of products, including potential duties on the auto industry.
Automakers and suppliers have been scrambling to mitigate the possible impact of tariffs in recent weeks, even after Trump gave the industry a one-month pause on March 5 for tariffs for cars entering the country from Canada and Mexico.
"This investment is a clear demonstration that tariffs very strongly work," Trump said. "Hyundai will be producing steel in America and making its cars in America and as a result they will not have to pay any tariffs. You know there are no tariffs if you make your product in America."
Hyundai plans to expand its Savannah-area plant and invest $6 billion in U.S. technology partnerships, including with Nvidia, Boston Dynamics and Waymo, according to the company’s March 25 announcement.
The total $21 billion investment plans aim to create 14,000 direct jobs across the U.S. by 2028.
At the White House, Chung touted the company's plans to purchase $3 billion worth of liquified natural gas from the U.S. energy industry. "All of these efforts will accelerate the localization of our supply chain in the U.S., expand our operations and grow our American workforce," Chung said.
Hyundai Motor Co. CEO José Muñoz underscored his belief in the company's supply chain strategy during a January earnings call.
"We are definitely trying to localize the production, which will minimize the potential impact from the tariffs," the CEO said on the call.
Hyundai is the latest major manufacturer to announce large-scale U.S. investment plans under the Trump administration.
Earlier this month, chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. joined Trump at the White House to announce a $100 billion U.S. manufacturing investment, and Apple unveiled plans to spend $500 billion on its domestic operations last month.
