Hyosung Heavy Industries employees gather at a ceremonial event held at the Changwon plant in South Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday. (Hyosung Heavy Industries)

Hyosung Heavy Industries said Wednesday that it has become the first in the domestic industry to surpass 10 trillion won (about $7 billion) cumulative production value for circuit breakers.

The company held a ceremony Tuesday at its Changwon plant in South Gyeongsang Province to mark the achievement. Around 400 Hyosung officials attended, including CEO Woo Tae-hee, Kwon Ki-Yeoung, head of circuit breaker division, and Kim Jin-ho, manager of the Changwon plant.

Hyosung started producing circuit breakers, devices designed to quickly interrupt current in transmission lines and substations during faults or abnormal power flow, in 1977. The company’s cumulative production value reached 1 trillion won in 1997 and 5 trillion won in 2013.

Hyosung has invested heavily in research and development to lead the power transmission and distribution market. It developed the country’s first 170kV gas circuit breaker in 1978, the world’s first 800kV double-breaker gas-insulated switchgear in 1999, Korea’s first 362kV GIS in 2004, and became the world’s second company to develop a 1,100kV double-breaker GIS in 2007.

The company’s global presence has boomed in recent years. Since opening a circuit breaker plant in India in 2016, Hyosung has supplied products to over 40 countries, including the Middle East, North America and Europe. Notably, it secured a 22 billion won contract this year with Iceland’s state-run power company, its largest GIS supply deal in Europe.

“Our consistent efforts in research and expanding orders helped us achieve the 10 trillion won milestone in circuit breaker production,” said CEO Woo Tae-hee. “We will strengthen our position as a global leader by expanding production of energy storage systems and high-voltage direct current systems, alongside our core products like circuit breakers and transformers.”