While Washington pushes to bring manufacturing back home, South Korea’s LG Electronics — one of the world’s largest home appliance and consumer tech companies — is quietly building out its supply chain elsewhere, opening a new air conditioner plant in Indonesia to anchor its production network across Southeast Asia.
The new facility in Cibitung, West Java, marks a strategic shift for LG as it scales manufacturing closer to emerging markets rather than relying solely on China or the U.S. The 7acre plant will produce up to 700,000 home air conditioners a year, serving Indonesia and neighboring ASEAN countries.
The move reflects a larger trend: Asian manufacturers are deepening their presence in the “Global South” to secure cost efficiencies and hedge against trade uncertainty driven by U.S.-China tensions. For American policymakers, it’s another reminder that global companies aren’t necessarily following the U.S. call to “reshore” production — they’re diversifying instead.
Indonesia’s government has been courting foreign manufacturers with tax breaks and local-content incentives, part of its drive to become a regional industrial hub. LG’s investment, which includes energy-efficient systems meeting ASEAN standards, fits neatly into that plan while advancing its own sustainability goals.
For the U.S., the significance lies in the shifting geography of manufacturing power. As Southeast Asia absorbs more high-tech production, it could reshape global supply routes for consumer electronics — the same networks that U.S. brands rely on.
LG, one of South Korea’s largest electronics firms, already operates plants in nearby Vietnam and Thailand and maintains production for the U.S. market through facilities in Tennessee and Mexico. The new Indonesian plant further underscores that the next phase of global manufacturing may run through Jakarta and Bangkok, not Detroit or Dallas.
