MOBIS: Top 10 Auto Parts Supplier by 2010

One of Korea's top export sectors is automotive. This includes the Hyundai-Kia Motor Group, which has a huge global infrastructure. In addition to manufacturing, sales, and marketing, Hyundai-Kia operates a massive logistics, distribution, and parts network. I work closely with many of the Hyundai-Kia affiliates including MOBiS--the parts supplier. I thought this article in Korea Herald provides a great snapshot of the auto parts supplier.


Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, the world's sixth largest automaker, is a company that places strong emphasis on globalizing its operations. The group's chairman Chung Mong-koo stresses the need to establish overseas production bases and sales networks at every opportunity and has set in motion a series of projects that will take the group into the ranks of the world's five largest automakers by 2009.

In line with Hyundai-Kia's globalization strategy, the group's affiliate and its largest auto parts supplier Hyundai Mobis Co. has also set a target of establishing itself as one of the world's top 10 auto parts makers by 2010.

Hyundai Mobis adopted a globalization strategy in 2003, but its first overseas plant was established in 2002 when the company opened a Chinese branch in Jiangsu province to supply parts to Dongfeng Yueda Kia Motor Co., Ltd -- a joint venture between Kia and the Chinese firms Dongfeng Motor Co. Ltd. and Jiangsu Yueda Investment Ltd.

In 2006, Hyundai Mobis constructed an additional plant for its Jiangsu operations to increase its annual production capacity to 300,000 driver modules from the initial 50,000.

Since the company began its ventures in China, it has established branches in Beijing, Shanghai and Wuxi, Jiangsu province.

The company has also established two subsidiaries in China to supply Hyundai-Kia's Chinese plants as well as domestic automakers with a wide range of parts including gear mechanisms.

Hyundai-Kia's expanding operations in the United States has also helped Hyundai Mobis establish a firm base in the world's largest automotive market. The company has built a plant capable of producing 300,000 chassis modules a year near Hyundai Motor's plant in Montgomery, Alabama. The plant, which supplies parts for Hyundai's Sonata and Santa Fe, has been installed with the electronic monorail system -- an overhead conveyer system -- to increase efficiency.

"The quality of the products manufactured at the plant is systematically checked by the company's headquarters to ensure the highest possible quality," a Hyundai Mobis representative said. He added that the company has also been updating its systems to meet global standards in corporate management.

"The company has also implemented a management system to combine all areas of management from accounting to human resources management to increase transparency of our operations."

Of the Hyundai-Kia's annual production capacity of 5 million units, 3 million are produced by local plants and the rest by six overseas facilities the automaker has established independently or in collaboration with foreign firms. However, within the next two years, all of the group's overseas facilities projects will have been completed and the group's two automakers -- Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. -- will be producing 2.93 million units from overseas plants. Hyundai Mobis, as the automotive group's largest supplier, is building plants to establish production bases near each of the group's overseas facilities.

The company has already built a plant with an annual production capacity of 300,000 chassis modules near Kia Motors' plant in Zilina. The company has also begun work on a plant with similar production capacity in the Czech Republic to supply Hyundai Motor's plant in the country. It is due for completion in 2009.

Although the company's overseas operations are mainly centered on Hyundai-Kia's plants, Hyundai Mobis is also operating as an independent company in the United States.

In 2004 the company was selected by DaimlerChrysler AG as the supplier of a complete chassis module for the 2007 Jeep Wrangler. To produce the modules, the Ohio Module Manufacturing Corp. was founded as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hyundai Mobis in the Chrysler Group's Toledo Supplier Park in Ohio.

"Through our globalization strategies we are aiming to become one of the world's top 10 auto parts makers by 2010," a Hyundai Mobis representative said.

"At the same time we will develop world class auto parts and help Hyundai and Kia come out on top in the increasingly competitive market."