REGISTER, Ga. — Six miles outside this South Georgia town without a stoplight, robotic machinery outnumbers the farmers who live nearby.
An automated armada of robotic arms rotate door frames and cause sparks to fly throughout the factory that’s roughly the size of 15 football fields. The facility by Ajin Georgia, which opened July 18, was a pad of dirt less than 14 months ago, but it’s now a regional employer that’s producing vehicle parts for the largest economic development project in state history.
New factories like Ajin’s facility along I-16 are sprouting across Coastal Georgia faster than the surrounding fields of soybeans and peanuts. The network of suppliers is trying to match the breakneck pace of Hyundai Motor Group as the automaker prepares to open its $7.6 billion electric vehicle factory in Bryan County.
“The Hyundai schedule is the Bible,” said Steven Kim, vice president and preconstruction director at Kajima Building and Design Group (KBD Group), the contractor that built Ajin’s plant. “All the vendors have to show that they will honor that schedule.”
Historically not an automotive production powerhouse, Georgia has recently rewritten that reputation, especially as the industry transitions to electric. In addition to Hyundai’s self-described Metaplant, where the company has promised to hire 8,500 people, Georgia has courted Rivian’s $5 billion EV factory an hour east of Atlanta, an expansion to Kia’s plant in West Point and several EV battery manufacturing facilities.
Atlanta Journal Constitution
