Hyundai Rotem

As part of the government-led restructuring in the wake of 1997 Asian financial crisis, Korea Rolling Stock Corporation (KOROS, Korean: 한국철도차량 주식회사) was founded on 1 July 1999 as a result of the merger between three major rolling stock divisions of Hanjin Heavy Industries, Daewoo Heavy Industries, and Hyundai Precision Industry.

In 2000, Hyundai Precision Industry sold its defence and plant businesses to KOROS, effectively making KOROS an affiliate company of Hyundai Motor Company. Hyundai Precision Industry was renamed as Hyundai Mobis in the same year. In August 2001, in an aftermath of Daewoo Group's dissolution, Daewoo Heavy Industries agreed to sell its stake in KOROS to Hyundai Mobis, which let the latter become the majority shareholder of the company. KOROS subsequently changed its name to Rotem Company (Korean: 주식회사 로템), where "Rotem" is known to be short for "Railroading Technology System", on 1 January 2002.

In 2006, Morgan Stanley became a minority shareholder by buying shares from Hyundai Motor Company and participating in Rotem's rights offering, until 2018. In a separate event in the same year, Hanjin Heavy Industries sold its stake in Rotem to Morgan Stanley, leaving Hyundai Motor Group the only remaining pre-1999 merger corporate shareholder. Rotem Company added "Hyundai" (현대; 現代) to its name on 3 December 2007 to reflect its current affiliation. Its shares are listed in the Korea Exchange in October 2013.

While Hyundai Rotem officially designated its founding date as 1 July 1977, which was also the time when "Hyundai Precision Industry" was officially named, in certain of its publications, it tried to trace its roots to the rolling stock business of other pre-1999 merger entities, which started building rolling stock since 1964.

Railway products

Rolling stock

Hyundai Rotem has been supplying majority of rolling stock in South Korea's railway network. They include Korail's KTX high-speed trains, electric multiple units (EMUs), locomotives, as well as the country's rapid transit networks, such as Seoul Metropolitan Subway, Busan Metro, and Daegu Metro.

International products include New South Wales D sets serving intercity services of Sydney Trains in Australia, K-Stock and R-Stock EMUs for Hong Kong's MTR, commuter EMUs for Taiwan, trains for the Delhi Metro, and automated trains for the Canada Line in Vancouver, Canada. In the United States, as of early 2025, it delivered 120 Silverliner V commuter trains for SEPTA Regional Rail in the Philadelphia area in Pennsylvania and 66 Silverliner Vs for Denver's Regional Transportation District (RTD) A Line.

In June 2024, South Korea and Uzbekistan concluded a KRW270 billion (approximately USD196 million at the time) deal to apply South Korean high-speed rail technology in Uzbekistan. It is the first export of high-speed trains with South Korean technology, where Hyundai Rotem will supply 6 sets (of 7 cars each) of high-speed trains, known as UTY EMU-250, which is a variant of KTX-Eum.

In September 2024, Hyundai Rotem's EMU-320 high-speed train (the original name is used for further research and sales after naming as KTX-Cheongryong in South Korea) obtained the design certification of Technical Specification for Interoperability (TSI), which paved the way for Hyundai Rotem into the European high-speed rail market.

Controversies

Boston MBTA

Hyundai Rotem was awarded a contract with Boston's MBTA in early 2008 for the construction of 75 cars. The contract entails the delivery of the first 4 cars by October 2010 while the remaining 71 cars were scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2012. However, due to chronic delays, shoddy workmanship, material shortage, and the death of Hyundai Rotem's chief executive, M.H. Lee, in November 2012, only four cars have been delivered by the end of 2012. On December 21, 2012, the MBTA sent a letter to Hyundai Rotem threatening to cancel the contract if a solution is not soon reached, which, would be a breach of the contract terms. Since then, the new cars have continued to experience various mechanical problems resulting in car shortages and delays. Despite this, as of 2024, the MBTA has been exercising the option to order additional train cars.

Ukrainian Railways HRCS2 trains

In December 2010, Ukrainian Railways entered into contract with Hyundai Rotem to order 10 multiple units of HRCS2 trains in preparation for the football championship UEFA Euro 2012 to transport passengers between cities that would host sporting events. The first two trains were delivered by ship to Odesa on March 11, 2012, which were than transferred to Kharkiv for acceptance testing. Six units passed their acceptance tests by June 1, 2012 and were deployed during the Euro 2012 tournament. The remaining four trains arrived around August 2012. Passenger service using these trains officially started on May 27, 2012 with Kyiv-Kharkiv and Kyiv-Lviv routes. The trains are used on a premium service introduced in Ukraine specifically for them, called Intercity and Intercity+ (Ukrainian: Інтерсіті+).

However, due to the short timeframe between entering the contract and delivery of the first trains (approximately 15 months), the trains had not undergone full-scale four-season tests, as is usually done in the railway industry. In December 2012 the trains were breaking down almost on a daily basis due to cold weather. This led to criticism by passengers and then President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych that the trains were bought. Hyundai Rotem offered its apologies to Ukrainian passengers, citing its "first winter in the country". The company will have its own team of engineers in Ukraine till 2018. In early October 2013 the company guaranteed "continuous operation" of the Intercity+ trains in the coming autumn and winter. However, all trains were taken out of service on February 12, 2014. Service resumed with one train set on April 29, 2014. Further rectifying works were scheduled to be completed by July 2014. After further maintenance, train performance had been stabilized. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, these trains were one of the lifelines for maintaining adequate railway services.

In August 2024, there were reports suggesting that Ukrainian Railways intended to order 20 more train sets from Hyundai Rotem as part of their modernization of train fleet.