LG’s Riyadh factory to export air-conditioners

It will start exporting air-conditioners to Egypt from May and then to Iraq, said Sheikh Hassan, CEO of Al-Hassan Ghazi Ibrahim Shaker Company, which has set up the factory jointly with LG.
Hassan was speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of the unveiling of Titan II, LG’s new addition in the Titan series, at its annual dealer convention at the InterContinental Jeddah.
“With construction going on for another plant in the existing LG-Shaker factory complex, its 250,000 air-conditioning unit capacity at the LG-Shaker factory in the capital will be raised by 250,000 units by September and increased further to one million units by 2011,” said Hassan.
“A total $35 million has been invested in the Riyadh operations and our aim is to make Saudi Arabia a hub for our exports to the Middle East and Africa,” he added.
LG’s existing manufacturing plants for air-conditioners are in Thailand, Brazil, India and China, aside from Korea.
The factory is producing all types of air-conditioners, including residential and commercial, but the Titan series, which serves the niche market, will be made in South Korea alone, said S.M. Cho, LG’s general manager-RAC, MEA Marketing Group.
Titan II has a surround cooling system along with various other features such as an allergy care kit that is certified by the British Allergy Foundation and an authorized Japanese agency, as well as a pre-filter (washable and anti fungus), an easy remote system, a smart clean indicator, a magic display and low noise, said John Lee, managing director of LG Saudi Arabia.
“LG has been locally producing window air-conditioners, split air-conditioners, and fresh and smart central air-conditioners at the Riyadh factory, which was established a few years ago,” he added.