LS Cable's Korea Motion Works to put KRW 345.5bn into Gumi rare-earth magnet plant for robot and EV motors

Korea Motion Works (KMW), the rare-earth permanent magnet company LS Cable set up in September, signed an investment MOU with North Gyeongsang Province and Gumi City on Oct 29 to build NdFeB and samarium-cobalt magnet capacity at LS Cable's Indong site in the Gumi national industrial complex, Yonhap reported.

The plan, as reported, is KRW 345.56 billion over 2026 to 2029 in two phases (KRW 197 billion, then KRW 148.56 billion) and 212 jobs; the province had not posted its own release by the evening of Oct 29, so the figures are unconfirmed.

LS Corp. said in a DART filing on Sept 30 that LS Cable will take all 150 million KMW shares for KRW 150 billion in cash by Dec 31, 2026, to enter the rare-earth permanent magnet business, which already covers about 43% of the reported plan.

MEKAWIRE context: the magnets go into the drive motors of industrial robots, humanoid joints and EVs, and the move follows the KIMS heavy-rare-earth-free NdFeB process we reported on Oct 23, part of a Korean push to cut reliance on Chinese magnet supply.