Invest KOREA

A SYMBOL OF TRUST
TÜV SÜD Korea has invested in Korea’s people and facilities to ensure safety and quality in diverse industries

Say you’re in the business of testing things and certifying them to be safe. You have your trusted testing standards, your tried-and-true definition of what is ok. But then something new comes along. An innovative technology for which there are no test standards. What do you do?

If you’re TÜV SÜD, an international certification organization based in Germany, you innovate along with it by helping create or adopt new standards. You can also redefine the concept of testing for certain cases in cooperation with other organizations. In other words, you let innovation breed innovation. And in a country like Korea, where manufacturers need testing and certification innovation for the new products they bring to the market every year, TÜV SÜD has met its match.

“Many Korean companies are early adopters of new technologies, which effectively make the Korean market an exciting test bed for new technologies,” said Stefan Rentsch, President & CEO of TÜV SÜD Korea.

TÜV SÜD opened its doors in Korea in 1994 as the country sought to raise the safety, reliability and sustainability of its industrial products and services to international standards. TÜV SÜD Korea offers testing, inspection, certification and training for three main areas: Industry – these would be services related to the operations and optimization of industrial plants and facilities, consulting regarding renewable energy and risk management and services related to real estate and infrastructure; mobility, which refers to automotive safety-related services, including e-mobility solutions for electric vehicle batteries; and certification both for products (everything from toys and textiles to foodstuffs and complex machines) and management services.

“TÜV SÜD Korea is engaged in any and all industries where safety and quality is a concern,” said Rentsch. “TÜV SÜD Korea is one of the fastest-growing offices of TÜV SÜD globally.”

Part of this is because of acquisitions; TÜV SÜD Korea acquired two corporations in the nuclear and conventional power industry in 2009 and 2010. Headquartered in Seoul, the 500-person company today has offices in Busan and Seongnam, an electrical safety-testing lab in Seoul and a battery-testing lab in Suwon.

The company’s organic growth is directly linked to the success of Korean products abroad – to, in short, Korea’s trade, as more trade means the need to certify goods as meeting local/international standards. The world’s eighth largest trading nation, Korea is a leading exporter of industrial products, especially in areas including consumer electronics, automotive, machinery, semiconductor, IT devices and engineering procurement construction. Korea’s extensive free trade agreement (FTA) network, which includes trade pacts with the United States, European Union and China, covers 73.5 percent of the global economy.

Due to international trade regulations, TÜV SÜD’s services are often interlinked through their more than 800 offices worldwide. Also, there is a harmonization nowadays in standards, as companies comply with all possible international standards to be able to use a variety of export channels.

So what sorts of tests does TÜV SÜD Korea conduct? Take lithium ion batteries, for example. The kind used in cars. TÜV SÜD Korea looks at whether they’d be safe in a car going 150 kilometers on the highway and what would happen in an accident. The company also provides consulting and surveillance services for new construction projects, checking things like pipeline condition, and whether a new train system works as it should. In doing so, TÜV SÜD Korea helps clients improve their business processes and optimize technology, systems and know-how. These clients use TÜV SÜD Korea, which saw a 30 percent increase in business in 2014, for an independent and unbiased inspection of their goods.

Just this past June, TÜV SÜD signed an agreement with Samsung Electronics regarding LED European Certification. This means TÜV SÜD Korea will provide services for Samsung Electronics customers worldwide that produce LED products with Samsung’s LED packages and modules.

In May, TÜV SÜD Korea entered into a Mutual Cooperation Agreement with Korea’s South Jeolla Province and the Korea Automotive Technology Institute for cooperation in high-performance tuning components certification.

“We are constantly looking out for more opportunities to expand and invest in our business here in Korea, as well as partner with our clients to increase our already comprehensive portfolio,” said Rentsch.

A key area for TÜV SÜD Korea is functional safety, which has everything to do with interoperating technologies – convergence, in other words – and the hazards they could pose. TÜV SÜD has one of its largest functional safety teams in Korea. Big data, or gathering, analyzing and using large volumes of data, will also prove to be an important area for Rentsch’s team in Korea, an IT-driven economy.

TÜV SÜD Korea has served as a technical hub in Asia for the TÜV SÜD group, said the CEO, especially with the technical expertise and experience accumulated here in the areas of functional safety, battery testing and nuclear power plant fields.

“The safety and quality of new products and technologies are the most important aspects of any innovation, and we feel Korea is among the most progressive places in the world to work because of its potential in these areas,” said Rentsch.

By Chang Young (young.chang@kotra.or.kr)
Executive Consultant / Invest Korea