Agile American die casting with Samkee America

By Daniel de Bomford, Quentin Lange

Locally made automobiles are more than a stamp on a bumper. Countries are looking inward to secure manufacturing and supply lines. As such, a new paradigm for global trade has emerged, favoring strategic localization and resilience. In recent decades, Korea has emerged as a powerhouse of automotive innovation and manufacturing, as well as a reliable partner in building cars locally for global markets. This path is also followed upstream, as aluminum die-casting specialist Samkee continues to thrive by supporting global automakers in Europe and the United States. Anticipating the shift, CEO Chihwan Kim says the company began pursuing a presence in the United States in 2017, and last year its factory opened in Tuskegee, Alabama, marking a significant milestone in its global strategy.

Samkee America, Inc. represents a harmonization of the company’s overall business strategy. The factory offers high-pressure aluminum die casting solutions for both internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and EVs, including motor housings, battery cases and transmission components. Kim believes the key to balancing productivity and quality boils down to the quality of the company’s people, specifically its engineers. “We are one of the few companies in Korea that maintain a very robust and strong in-house manufacturing engineering capability,” he says. Likewise, Samkee America leverages the same strategy, developing and maintaining deep in-house engineering capabilities in the American South. The Korean company is creating good jobs and investing in local communities.

Chihwan Kim, CEO, Samkee Corp

The broader strategy of maintaining deep expertise is reflected in its innovative approaches to challenges. By retaining both engineering and manufacturing capabilities, it designs and builds specialized machines to overcome challenges for both existing and emerging technologies. Machines, which Kim points out, cannot be replicated or produced by other suppliers. “We make a conscious decision not to rely on external suppliers for this core equipment,” he says. 

Samkee maintains these capabilities and expertise to ensure competitiveness, which enables the company to augment its capabilities with AI rather than relying solely on it. Samkee was one of the first companies in Korea to adopt machine learning and AI for part inspection automation and among the first to implement it on the shop floor in India, thereby eliminating a manual, time-intensive process.

Samkee America

Kim says there’s no magic formula for the company’s success. “We stick to three basics: agility in R&D, flexibility in manufacturing and reliability in quality,” he states. While its core focus remains casting and machining, the company's flexibility has enabled it to expand into applications such as battery manufacturing. Samkee is proving to be an example of the best of Korean manufacturing. “One thing is clear: Korean companies are excellent at manufacturing. This is true not just for large conglomerates but also for SMEs,” Kim says. 

Despite the twists and turns of the road that is globalization, Samkee’s ability to maintain self-reliance and strategically expand into the United States has enabled it to continue its globally competitive course. Through a combination of engineering aptitude and local investment, it has secured its position in a shifting global market and helped shape the future of automotive manufacturing.

For more details, explore the website at: https://www.samkee.com/eng/main/