Hyundai Rotem


Hyundai Rotem Company, often referred to as Hyundai Rotem, is a South Korean manufacturer of railway rolling stock, railway signalling, defense products and plant equipment. It is a member of Hyundai Motor Group and has presence in more than 50 countries worldwide. As of 2024, Hyundai Rotem has more than 4,100 employees.

History

As part of the government-led restructuring in the wake of 1997 Asian financial crisis, Korea Rolling Stock Corporation was founded on 1 July 1999 as a result of the merger between three major rolling stock divisions of Hanjin Heavy Industries, Daewoo Heavy Industries, and Hyundai Precision Industry.
In 2000, Hyundai Precision Industry sold its defence and plant businesses to KOROS, effectively making KOROS an affiliate company of Hyundai Motor Company. Hyundai Precision Industry was renamed as Hyundai Mobis in the same year. In August 2001, in an aftermath of Daewoo Group's dissolution, Daewoo Heavy Industries agreed to sell its stake in KOROS to Hyundai Mobis, which let the latter become the majority shareholder of the company. KOROS subsequently changed its name to Rotem Company, where "Rotem" is known to be short for "Railroading Technology System", on 1 January 2002.
In 2006, Morgan Stanley became a minority shareholder by buying shares from Hyundai Motor Company and participating in Rotem's rights offering, until 2018. In a separate event in the same year, Hanjin Heavy Industries sold its stake in Rotem to Morgan Stanley, leaving Hyundai Motor Group the only remaining pre-1999 merger corporate shareholder. Rotem Company added "Hyundai" to its name on 3 December 2007 to reflect its current affiliation. Its shares are listed in the Korea Exchange in October 2013.
While Hyundai Rotem officially designated its founding date as 1 July 1977, which was also the time when "Hyundai Precision Industry" was officially named, in certain of its publications, it tried to trace its roots to the rolling stock business of other pre-1999 merger entities, which started building rolling stock since 1964.

Railway products

Rolling stock

Hyundai Rotem has been supplying majority of rolling stock in South Korea's railway network. They include Korail's KTX high-speed trains, electric multiple units, and locomotives, and also SRT high-speed trains operated by SR Corporation, as well as the country's rapid transit networks, such as Seoul Metropolitan Subway, Busan Metro, and Daegu Metro.
International products include New South Wales D sets serving intercity services of Sydney Trains in Australia, K-Stock and R-Stock EMUs for Hong Kong's MTR, commuter EMUs for Taiwan, trains for the Delhi Metro, and automated trains for the Canada Line in Vancouver, Canada. In the United States, as of early 2025, it delivered 120 Silverliner V commuter trains for SEPTA Regional Rail in the Philadelphia area in Pennsylvania and 66 Silverliner Vs for Regional Transportation District 's A Line.
In June 2024, South Korea and Uzbekistan concluded a KRW270 billion deal to apply South Korean high-speed rail technology in Uzbekistan. It is the first export of high-speed trains with South Korean technology, where Hyundai Rotem will supply 6 sets of high-speed trains, known as UTY EMU-250, which is a variant of KTX-Eum.
In September 2024, Hyundai Rotem's EMU-320 high-speed train obtained the design certification of Technical Specification for Interoperability, which paved the way for Hyundai Rotem into the European high-speed rail market.
As of early 2025, the largest order ever for Hyundai Rotem's rail solution division is a KRW2.2027 trillion contract to supply double-deck electric trains to the ONCF, Morocco's national railway operator, in the same year. It is the largest single order not only for the company but also for any South Korean rolling stock manufacturing company.
Besides conventional trains powered by diesel, overhead wire and third rail, Hyundai Rotem is also developing hydrogen mobility technology based on the hydrogen fuel cell technology system of its holding company, Hyundai Motor Company. In 2021, a hybrid hydrogen fuel cell tram prototype was unveiled. A revised design was exhibited during InnoTrans 2022 in Berlin, which was later recognised in the product category of iF Design Award 2023, and with a full-scale tram exhibited in the RailLog Korea 2023. Detailed specifications of the tram were announced in 2024, with the same full-scale tram being showcased in InnoTrans in the same year. Mass production model is expected to be firstly introduced to Daejeon Metro Line 2 in South Korea, which is scheduled to commence operations in 2028. Other types of rolling stock, such as hydrogen fuel cell-powered locomotives and EMUs, are also under development.

List of rolling stock manufactured by Hyundai Rotem

In the list below, not only the rolling stock built by Hyundai Rotem are included, those built by the pre-1999 merger entities of Hyundai Precision Industry, Daewoo Heavy Industries, and Hanjin Heavy Industries are also included.

High-speed trains