Starting in 1958 under the brand name GoldStar, LG has become one of the most reputable names in the world of home appliances. They were the first company in South Korea to make appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines.
Understanding that this company isn’t American, you may wonder where they build LG appliances. In the rest of this article, we’ll explain exactly where LG appliances are made and other interesting information about the company.
LG appliances are made in several countries, including the United States, South Korea, and China. In 2019, LG opened a massive 829,000 square-foot home appliance facility in Clarksville, Tennessee, where they build many appliances sold to the US market.
Which LG Appliances Are American Made?
LG makes some of its washing machines in the United States, but we would still advise caution since the main factory for LG is still located in South Korea and they source many components from this location.
Many home appliance brands have taken to manufacturing next to their market because shipping a refrigerator costs more than making it in that country domestically. We always recommend reaching out to the seller before purchasing an LG product to ensure that it’s made in the USA before purchasing.
Some of the LG appliances made in the United States include:
- Front-load washing machines
- Top-load washing machines
Again, check ahead of time because LG still heavily favors Korean manufacturing, and we think it would be a mistake if you were to assume that that has changed. We saw some people claiming that most of the LG appliances made for the US market are made in the United States, but we don’t think that’s the case at all. The factory in Clarksville only builds washing machines at this time.
Still, we would applaud this brand for the American manufacturing that it does within the United States.
In addition, we have reasons for cautious optimism with this brand due to a recent expansion of their Clarksville factory in Tennessee. Apparently, there’s a high demand for home appliances made in the United States, and it’s going very well for LG.
They have expressed a willingness to make more of their other home appliances in the United States if it goes well, and it has gone incredibly well.
Expert Tip: Look for the higher price tags on the LG washing machines to pinpoint the American-made appliances. In general, LG is especially favoring the US manufacturing for the more high-end washing machines. You may still want to exercise caution with the lower-priced ones. Also, if you’re interested, you can see how LG appliances stack up to some of our other favorite American-made appliances here.
Who Owns LG?
Formerly known as Lucky Goldstar from 1983 to 1995, Koo In-hwoi founded the brand known today as LG, but today, his successive family generations have taken over ownership of the company under the label of LG Corp. In the past, LG stood for Lucky Goldstar, but today, LG stands for “Life’s Good.” LG also has a complex corporate structure where you have LG Corp, LG Group, LG Chem, and LG Electronic, which may lower tax reliability due to taxes going up to 45 percent in some cases. This is a South Korean company, and LG is not owned by China.
Where Are LG Refrigerators Made?
Most LG refrigerators come from South Korea, with a couple of models made in China and Vietnam, particularly the cheaper models. You want to avoid anything in the refrigerator category from this brand if you want a refrigerator made in the USA.
With everything said, South Korea does have a good reputation when it comes to manufacturing. Many of the products that they make have dominated the market because of their high quality.
LG operates its main home appliance factory in Changwon, the capital of Gyeongsangnam-do. The factory sits along the southern coast of South Korea. They produce refrigerators, air conditioners, ovens, and water purifiers. This factory operates six production lines. By 2024, LG has said that they want to turn all of the production lines into a smart factory to improve productivity and power usage.
Currently, the main plant in South Korea can produce two million units per year, but once they finish the smart factory, they can increase production to three million units. In fact, LG operates two separate factories in Changwon, but they have a total of 8,000 workers at the two facilities here. In total, an estimated 61 percent of all their production comes from South Korea.
What Country Makes LG Washing Machines?
You have over 12 countries that make LG washing machines, including the United States. A large portion of the washing machines sold to the US market is in fact made in the USA. Some of the other locations where they make LG washing machines include South Korea, Poland, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, China, India, and Russia. Where your LG washing machine comes from will depend on the country that you live in since each manufacturing location was meant to serve a market.
Made in America: LG Factory in Clarksville
When LG first opened its factory in Clarksville, Tennessee, in 2019, it started by creating 600 new jobs for American workers and investing $250 million into this project. No one knew how big it would become or if it would prove successful at all.
In April 2021, LG announced that they would invest an extra $20.5 million into their 829,000-square-foot factory in Clarksville with the purpose of creating an additional shift of workers, generating 334 new jobs for their Clarksville facility.
This new expansion brings the total employment rate at the facility in Clarksville up to 1,000 workers. Having a facility in Tennessee serves as an advantageous sell point for American production, and it increases their speed to market.
Not only did LG build a factory in Clarksville, but the actual decision came back in 2017 when they built their LG North American Headquarters in Englewood, New Jersey. Soon after, they announced plans to build a factory in the United States. The facility in Clarksville is considered the most advanced production plant in the world when it comes to washing machines.
Over the long term, LG owns a 310-acre site where they can eventually expand their facility into building other home appliances, and we think this could happen sooner rather than later, considering their successes.
LG even entered into an agreement with the state of Tennessee to include incentives for them coming here. Before they constructed the facility in Tennessee, LG studied eight different states for a factory, but they found how they liked Tennessee the most for its business-friendly environment and the highly skilled workforce there. Believe it or not, states compete for factories like this, and Tennessee won out in the end.
As far as we could tell, they have not expanded their US manufacturing operations beyond the washing machines. That means that you will have a very limited range of what you can buy from them if you want American-made products. Still, we think that this would make for a good company to watch in the future since they may see that it is better to make the appliances in the United States.
Important Things to Know About the Facility in Clarksville
Clarksville sits right along the Tennessee-Kentucky border, and it is situated 50.1 miles from Nashville. You can find this factory located in Corporate Business Park North on Jim Johnson Road. They operate two main assembly lines here: one for top-load washing machines and one for front-load washing machines. The brand has slowly been moving up to full production with its washing machines.
This facility will serve as more of an assembly plant rather than a factory where they put the things together. They use Korean and Chinese sourced parts.
However, the other reason that we would exercise caution is that not everything is as it appears. In fact, LG has 12 factories where they produce washing machines, so you want to check to see that it came from the facility in Clarksville. Some of the other locations where they assemble washing machines include Poland, Russia, Egypt, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and India.
LG may favor the US-made ones for America, however, simply because of an additional import tax that the United States has imposed on washing machines to the US. They set the tax rate at 18 percent for the first 1.2 million washing machines imported to the United States. Anything over that gets taxed at a 45 percent rate, which shows you why LG finally had enough incentive to manufacture in the US.
The construction of the plant allowed them to avoid the tax and lower the cost of their washing machines in the US market.
With everything in mind, we still wouldn’t consider LG a great American-made brand. We can think of home appliance brands that have done far more for the United States and more willingly than a company that does it because an import tax twisted their arm into doing it.
In case you’d like to see an estimation of LG’s manufacturing operations and how they spread out across the world, we put together this informative table to help. Keep in mind that it only gives an estimate, and these percentages are always fluctuating:
| Country | Estimated Number of Workers | Percentage |
| United States | 1,000 | 1% |
| South Korea | 37,000 | 61.5% |
| Poland | 2,100 | 3% |
| Russia | n/a | n/a |
| Egypt | 1,000 | 1% |
| China | 8,000 | 13% |
| Vietnam | 7,000 | 11.6% |
| Thailand | 2,000 | 3% |
| Indonesia | 2,000 | 3% |
Hopefully, this shows you why we think the way that we do about LG and its American-made manufacturing practices. Even with their current standing in the United States, they produce less than one percent of their products in the United States. We do see reasons for cautious optimism, but LG has a long way to go before we would give a confident thumbs up for American-made on this company. They still heavily favor South Korea, with over 61.5 percent of its manufacturing coming from there.
That’s fair reasoning considering they’re a South Korean company. However, especially in the home appliance category, you have some great and deserving American companies who are building their products in the United States, besides LG.
If you like LG products, you could buy LG washers, however, and you’d still be supporting American workers. We saw some people say that everything will soon come out of the factory in Clarksville, but as far as we could tell from official statements from LG, only the washers will come out of that factory.
We’re not saying anything bad about LG, and we even applaud their new American factory but at least for the time being, we can think of better brands in terms of American-made for the home appliance category. It’s not impossible to find great home appliances made in the USA. Now that we’ve spoken about the subject of American-made let’s have a look at the manufacturing practices of LG in other countries.
Related Article: Where Are GE Appliances Made?
Is LG Made in China?
LG’s operations in China mark out its second-largest manufacturing hub. The rising cost of production in China has meant that LG has shifted its attention to cheaper production markets like Vietnam, but China remains a key player for LG at this point.
More than home appliances, we see China manufacture many of the electronics for LG. For example, they make speakers and headphones here. In Hong Kong, they operate an assembly line for the production of washing machines, but they also have factories in China for building the components for their products at a variety of locations. They send the parts from China to factories around the world.
The brand used to have a greater dependence on China, but they have begun to shift production to other countries as manufacturing costs in China have steadily risen.
Is LG Still in Russia?
You may have noticed something peculiar in the graph that we listed above. We put the “n/a” sign there because LG once had a manufacturing presence in Russia, but since the conflict started, they have temporarily suspended their operations at those plants. They belong to a list of over 1,000 companies that pulled their manufacturing operations in the country. We don’t know how many workers they had there before, but their manufacturing was meant to serve the European market.
Like many companies, they may one day return to Russia.
Made in Poland: LG Home Appliances
The LG operations in Poland exist to serve the European market, and you’ll find the LG washing machine factory in Wroclaw in southwestern Poland. They produce an estimated one million washing machine units every year. LG modernized this facility in 2011 and expanded it. In Poland, LG operates two factories.
Some of the things that they produce here include refrigerators like the side-by-side two-door bottom freezer—this is one of LG’s specialties. Along with one million washing machine units, they also produce one million refrigerators per year here.
The facility in Wroclaw has become a cornerstone of LG manufacturing for the European market.
To give you an idea of how long overseas shipping can take when they would transport LG refrigerators in the past from China and South Korea, it would take around a month for it to arrive at the European markets. Building the units right nearby makes them able to respond more quickly to market demand, and it’s more eco-friendly.
Are LG Appliances Made in Vietnam?
Vietnam makes up the third-largest manufacturing presence for LG. On April 20, 2021, Jung Hai-jin, the president of LG electronics, announced that they would move an increasing amount of production over to Vietnam. Jung went on to say that they would focus on the products most in demand, such as home appliances, which means that we may see an increasing amount of LG home appliances being made in Vietnam. Along with home appliances, they make electronics at this facility as well.
The location for its home appliance factory is located in Haiphong, Vietnam, in the northeastern part of the country. This is a major industrial city, and it also has a major seaport for shipping products overseas, a strategic choice, no doubt. During the Vietnam War, they subjected it to the heavy bombing because it was the only major port in northern Vietnam.
Up until 2019, most of the products made at the facility in Haiphong went to supply the United States. Today that has somewhat shifted with the products going more to the Asian and Middle Eastern markets. As you can tell, that production stopped in 2019 when LG built its facility in Clarksville.
Related Article: What Dinnerware is Made in the USA?
Final Thoughts:
LG home appliances have a reputation as being reliable, and many service technicians in a 2019 survey gave it their thumbs up of approval, ranking only second to the American-made brand Whirlpool. Due to the popularity of LG appliances, they’re easier to fix than other choices because of how you can get the parts easier. With everything said, only a select few things like washing machines are made in the USA.
That does it for this article. If you have any further questions or comments regarding the question of where LG appliances are made, let us know in the comments below.
Hi, my name is Kevin and I’m from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Choosing products made in America is important to me because it supports local economies, creates jobs, helps the environment, and ensures ethical labor practices. I also find that American made products are usually of higher quality so although they’re a little more expensive, you save money in the long run. Before starting this website I was in the USMC infantry and nowadays I work on this website as a hobby.
Good to hear that their washing machines are made in the US because that’s exactly what I need right now. Is there any way to be sure that the model I’m looking at is American made?
Hey Allie, LG usually does a pretty good job putting a marking somewhere on their appliances, but if you can’t find it you could reach out to customer service and they can probably tell you. Also, if you are looking to get a washing machine just go to the website and they clearly let you know which models are American made.
I think the unions are responsible for some companies leaving the US. Everyone loses. I worked for a ma-and-pa shop that deserved a union. We need a balance. So what brand of refrigerator should I buy? Just need an 18 cubic foot Top freezer fridge that is going to run for 20 years.
Hey Darrell, I agree with you that we definitely need balance. I’m actually working on a full article comparing all the brands that offer refrigerators made in the USA now, it should be done in about a week. We have an article on appliances that highlights some companies offering refrigerators. LG, Frigidaire, Maytag, etc.