Korea’s Hyosung HICO and Houston-based Quanta Services formed a joint venture to manufacture high-voltage circuit breakers out of a Quanta subsidiary’s manufacturing operation in Canonsburg, Pa.
The companies announced the joint venture Tuesday, and said the initiative answers a growing call from the utility, industrial, technology and load center markets for more domestic production of power equipment. The venture will operate from the refurbished, state-of-the-art facility with a slated start date of July 1, 2026, and produce high-voltage and extra-high-voltage circuit breakers rated up to 800kv.
“America’s grid is being asked to do more than ever, and the industry has been clear that it needs more high-voltage equipment built right here at home,” Jason E. Neal, president of Hyosung HICO and Sr. Exec. V.P. of HICO America, said. “This joint venture is our answer. It builds directly on the momentum from our Memphis transformer operations – including 765 kV transformers and our recent expansion announcements, which are well underway – and extends that same commitment to domestic manufacturing into the breaker market. When two market leaders bring their best together, the grid wins, and so does American manufacturing.”
Hysong HICO’s leaders said the move was part of the company’s broader US growth strategy – a sustained, multi-site commitment to domestic manufacturing that now spans high-voltage circuit breakers in the Pittsburgh region, as well as large power transformers in Memphis, Tenn.
“Quanta has spent decades building the infrastructure that powers this country, and our craft labor expertise, operational depth, and manufacturing capability give us a unique ability to bring this joint venture to life. Grid modernization can’t wait – and neither can domestic manufacturing. By bringing high-voltage breaker production home with Hyosung HICO, we’re strengthening the domestic supply chain, creating American jobs, and delivering greater solutions and certainty to utility, industrial, and technology and load center customers who need a simplified, turn-key answer to their most critical infrastructure challenges – right when the demands of a rapidly electrifying economy make it essential,” Karl Studer, president of Electric Power, Quanta Services.