The Doosan Group is focusing on the fuel cell business as one of its future growth drivers.
The company merged with Fuel Cell Power, a local home-use fuel cell provider, on July 10 and announced on July 21 that it launched Doosan Fuel Cell America by acquiring the assets and operating liabilities of ClearEdge Power at a cost of US$32.4 million. ClearEdge Power is an American company that owns original fuel cell technology for buildings.
Doosan is anticipating a huge synergy effect on the technology and marketing sides alike from the M&A deals that brought it a full line-up of fuel cell technologies. Specifically, ClearEdge Power is expected to be a boon to its business in the United States an in Korea as a tool for responding to the obligatory supply of new and renewable energy. In addition, the sharing of the technical and R&D know-how of both companies is predicted to lead to higher competitiveness. ClearEdge Power recorded approximately 70 billion won (US$68.2 million) in sales last year.
In the meantime, the building, housing and industrial segments of the global fuel cell market is estimated to grow from 1.8 to 5 trillion won (from US$1.7 to 4.8 billion) between last year and 2018. The size is forecast to reach 40 trillion won (US$38.9 billion) by 2023, with an annual growth rate amounting to 30 percent.