Korea’s CTR Group joins hands with Microsoft for digital innovation

The business agreement signing ceremony between CTR Group and Microsoft Korea on April 11. Kang Sang-woo, vice chairman of CTR Group, left. [Photo provided by CTR Group]

CTR Group, a 70-year-long South Korean auto parts company, has joined hands with Microsoft Korea Inc. to speed up its digital transformation in the manufacturing industry.

According to industry sources on Wednesday, the auto parts company signed a business agreement with Microsoft Korea on Tuesday to introduce Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud technology Software as a Service-based platform Azure to convert its company-wide information technology infrastructure to cloud-based and build a big data platform based on Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 enterprise resource planning solution.

“Digital transformation is the driving force behind corporate culture and productivity innovation,” said Kang Sang-woo, vice chairman of CTR Group. “We will leap forward as a key global mobility company with our vision of supplying safe products and services to all means of transportation.”

CTR Group has been making all-out efforts for digital transformation. Earlier, the company established a joint venture, Formation Labs, with THiRA-UTECH CO., a provider of smart factory solutions, for smart factory design and signed a business agreement with U.S. Silicon Valley-based IT company Swit Technologies Inc. in 2021 to advance digital business collaboration.

CTR Group started as an auto parts store, Shilla Machinery Store, in 1952 and has grown into a mid-sized company with sales of 1.6 trillion won ($1.21 billion) last year. Its flagship product, ball joint, has a global market share of more than 10 percent and its lightweight parts are used in 25 percent of electric vehicles around the world, which shows its distinguished position in the eco-friendly future mobility field.

On April 1, the group changed the names of its units, such as Central Motek Corp. to CTR Mobility Co. It also established CTR Holdings Ltd., a holding company that will be responsible for establishing long-term strategies for the automobile sector, overseeing joint-venture establishment and equity investment and promoting mergers and acquisitions for new businesses, with an aim to expand its business area to new areas for future generations, including EV-dedicated platforms and batteries.