Sampyo Cement (krx: 038500) is a South Korean cement, concrete and chemical company headquartered in Seoul. It produces portland cement products. It was established in 1957 as Tong Yang Cement by Lee Yang-gu as the second of his many companies which would grow into the Tongyang Group, and was also later known as Tongyang Cement and Energy.[1][2]
In 1957, Lee used his own capital from money he earned in the confectionery business to acquire a cement factory in Samcheok, Gangwon Province; its owners at the time were eager to sell due to frequent labour disputes and the poor state of the physical plant.[3] That factory had started operations in 1942 under the ownership of Onoda Cement during Japanese colonial rule over Korea.[4] Lee searched out former Onoda engineers in order to rehire them, in particular Oh Pyong-ho, "supposedly the only competent cement engineer in post-colonial South Korea"; Oh accepted the job offer.