Doosan sets up team to run hydrogen-related business

Doosan Group has established a task force dedicated to hydrogen energy, putting together relevant teams that are currently dispersed across several subsidiaries.

The companies that conduct hydrogen-related business within the conglomerate are Doosan Fuel Cell, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction and drone manufacturer Doosan Mobility Innovation.

The team’s core mission will be discovering new business opportunities overseas by analyzing different government policies and measuring the potential market of respective regions. A priority market at the moment is the United States.

“We’re expecting the U.S. hydrogen market to receive a big boost from President Joe Biden’s drive for ecofriendly policies,” Doosan Group said in a statement.

“As a start, the task force will work together with external research institutes to analyze global markets. In the United States, particularly, our plan is to make detailed analysis per state.”

According to Doosan, the value chain of hydrogen energy starts from production, storage, transportation and distribution to consumption points like power generation and mobility.

The task force’s role is to spot business opportunities in this value chain where Doosan subsidiaries can do well using existing infrastructure. For technology development, the team will also take charge of planning out how the conglomerate can fill holes in that value chain.

“The goal is to combine every capacity we have and create synergy between them,” the company said. “But for areas that we lack in, we will aggressively push ways to compensate in the shortest time possible, like finding strategic partners or acquisitions.”

A more detailed plan will be shared in the near future, it added.

With carbon neutrality now having become a national agenda, some of Korea’s largest conglomerates like SK and Hyundai Motor have announced plans to develop hydrogen-related businesses as a future growth engine.

Doosan is the latest to join this trend, but in terms of hydrogen technology, the conglomerate already has subsidiaries that are leaders in relevant industries.

Doosan Fuel Cell, for example, which the conglomerate acquired in 2014, is a domestic leader in the production of hydrogen fuel cells, which play the role of batteries in hydrogen-powered electric vehicles and power generators. For the past three years, the company has secured supply contracts worth more than 1 trillion won ($900 million), annually.

Doosan Mobility Innovation was the first company in the world to mass produce drones that run on hydrogen fuel cells in 2019. In late 2020, Doosan Heavy Industries also entered the hydrogen business, launching the construction of a liquefied hydrogen plant in Changwon, South Gyeongsang with the goal of completing the facility in 2022.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]