Hyperdrive
China's Electric Cars Make Copper Coil Titan a Billionaire
- Huh Chin-kyu’s Iljin counts Buffett-backed BYD as customer
- His net worth has swelled to $1.1 billion, Bloomberg estimates
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China’s goal of putting more electric cars on the road is proving a bonanza for a South Korean tycoon.
Huh Chin-kyu, the 77-year-old founder and chairman of Seoul-based Iljin Group, has become his country’s latest billionaire thanks to increasing demand for the firm’s copper coils, a key component of rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles. The company’s Iljin Materials unit has posted a 15 percent jump in adjusted revenue since adding Warren Buffett-backed BYD Co., China’s biggest electric-carmaker, as a customer in 2015.