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There is intense competition over high speed elevator 2009/06/15 By Bai, Il-han There has been escalating competition over winning high speed elevators. The constructions of high rise buildings were approved, so Otis, Hyundai Elevator and ThyssenKrupp Elevator started active marketing activities on June 11. The high speed elevators mean elevators over 300m a minute that are installed in over 40-story building and the market has been dominated by foreign companies with high technological power and experiences. Over 100-story buildings that will be in Korea by 2015 are about 10 buildings. The construction amount of those is 5% of overall cost and if one order is given, a firm will see tens of billions of dollars in revenue. Korea is the world’s third elevator market so global companies are eyeing on it. Otis is in the lead with winning a series of large scale orders in Songdo International City. The company won order of supplying 31 elevators to Northeast Trade Tower (300m) that will be complete next year in Songdo and finished installation of high speed elevators in 4 buildings nearby. The company rented a floor of the Northeast Trade Tower and moved part of organization to target the demand in Songdo. Thyssen Krupp Elevator Korea is stepping up sales activities on high speed elevators to overcome demand decrease in apartment. The company is dong its best to reflect favorable conditions to power saving elevators from design stage in order to take advantageous status in bid for the second part of this year. Hyundai Elevator has utilized the world’s highest test tower that will be constructed in Icheon, Kyung-gi Province in April to challenge the market that has been dominated by the foreign firms. The company plans to commercialize double tech elevators with 600m per minute and high speed elevators with 1,000m a minute through this test tower. Hyundai Elevator will supply elevators to I- park (292m) in Haewundae in Busan, which will be finished in 2011. Kwon, Yung-min, managing director of Hyundai Elevator said, “The order of elevators for high rise buildings over 100 stories will begin in the second half of this year in earnest but in effect, the competition has already started. We will break the dominance of the foreign firms.”