Samsung to build in UK

Samsung Heavy Industries has taken over the former factory of failed steel fabricator Octavius Atkinson where it will build excavators and wheel loaders.

Samsung says it will employ 100 people, rising to 600 by the year 2000. Until now the Korean-produced excavators and wheel loaders have been sold in this country solely through Imaco.

The announcement is a dramatic answer to recent moves among EC-based manufacturers to have anti-dumping measures imposed on Korean rival companies. By building in the UK, Samsung will be able to compete without the fear of being hit by legislation.

The factory Samsung has occupied was originally a state-of-the-art steel fabrication plant, built in the 80s by Taylor Woodrow subsidiary Octavius Atkinson who went under in 1993.