LS IMM targets 20% market share in Mexico by 2026, expands tech centers

Stephen Downer

The LS IMM team at Plastimagen, from left: Kevin Kim, CEO Mexico; Charlie Hyun, CEO worldwide; and Fulvio Menconi, sales president for Mexico and Latin America.

LS IMM, the injection molding press division of South Korean industrial machinery maker LS Mtron, is aiming to capture up to 20 percent of the Mexican market in the next nine months, its CEO Charlie Hyun says.

The company exhibited for the first time at Plastimagen in 2025 and had several machines in operation on its stand. In a short speech March 12, Hyun said he viewed Plastimagen as "a turning point for our company in Mexico."

"We want to expand our market share up to 20 percent before 2026," he had told Plastics News in an interview a few minutes earlier.

Hyun said the company's share of the market currently is between 6 percent and 8 percent.

In the same interview, Fulvio Menconi, the company's sales president for Mexico and Latin America, explained the company's aggressive marketing strategy.

LS IMM, he said, has a "large portfolio" of machines in stock in North America, including in Chicago, Illinois.

"We have more than 40 machines in North American warehouses for immediate delivery. That means that in one week the machines can be on site."

They include all-electric presses ranging in clamping force from 32-1,300 tons, hydraulic machines with 100-4,000 tons of clamping force and vertical presses.

"We have sold 1,500 presses in Mexico in the past 15 years," said Menconi. "Most have been hydraulic but we have also sold a lot of electric machines because we think LS technology in electric machines is the best in the world."

Referring to the size of the Mexican market, he added: "Mexico is the big one in the region, followed by Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica."

According to Menconi, LS IMM has a tech center in Monterrey, where it also has its main sales office in Mexico.

The Mexican subsidiary, LS IU México S. de R.L. de C.V., opened officially in 2023, Kevin Kim, the company's CEO in Mexico, said, adding: "But we have been selling machines in Mexico for more than 20 years."

Menconi revealed plans to build another tech center in Querétaro, in central Mexico. It would be equipped with eight or 10 machines.

Paul Caprio, LS Mtron president of sales North America, told the gathering of trade reporters that the Korean company "will be a major supplier here" in Mexico."

He said he expected the LS Mtron U.S. operatioins to have 10 percent of the U.S. market this year.

South Korea's LG Corp., one of the world's largest plastics molders, founded LS Mtron in 1969, initially to satisfy its own production needs for injection molded components.

* Source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/news/ls-imm-targets-20-market-share-mexico-2026-expands-tech-centers