Thursday, September 29, 2005

Hyundai Kia Motor Group's Aggressive Global Expansion

The Hyundai Kia Motor Group has no intention of slowing its international expansion and is working to complete an overseas plant in Slovakia after completing a car plant in the southern U.S.

Korea'’s largest automobile group announced it is also looking to build a plant for small Hyundai cars in the Czech Republic and considering a plant for Kia Motors sports utility vehicles and pick-up trucks in Mississippi.

Experts estimate that the group will need 1.2 billion euros for the Eastern European plant and $1.2 billion for the U.S. factory.

The group spent $1.1 billion on building the plant with an annual production capacity of 150,000 units in Alabama and started producing its new Sonatas there in May.

Its affiliate Kia Motor is building a plant with an annual production capacity of 300,000 units in Zilina, Slovakia. Slated for completion late next year, it costs 1.1 billion euros.

A Hyundai Kia Group spokesman said, We are accelerating the construction of overseas plants because sales in the U.S. and Europe are increasing every year but the strong won is eroding export profits.

In a related article, Hyundai Automotive Kia Group chairman Chung Mong-gu announced while on tour in Slovakia that its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. is determined to make the auto plant under construction in Zilina, Slovakia, the best motor vehicle plant on the Continent as Kia's strategic platform to win the European consumer.

During his recent visit to the construction site located 203 kilometers northeast of the Slovak capital Bratislava, Chung spoke to local employees, reaffirming Kia Motors' resolve to make it a strategic base for the European market.

The article also cites that in addition to the production units in China, India, and Turkey, and Alabama-- Kia Motors plans to build a U.S. unit in Mississippi.

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