New Plant in China
Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo said on October 18, “Beijing Hyundai will make a new leap forward with the new plant in Changzhou as a momentum.”
Hyundai Motor Group laid out its strategy to overcome the recent crisis by achieving cumulative sales of 10 million vehicles in China by the first half of 2018, just 16 years after it first entered the market. Considering the fact that it took 38 years for the company to reach that same milestone in Korea, it is a more than two times faster pace.
“Beijing Hyundai, a joint venture with Beijing Automotive Group, symbolizes economic cooperation between Korea and China,” said Chairman Chung at a ceremony to mark the completion of the firm’s new plant in Changzhou, Hebei Province of China, on the same day. Since it was founded in China in 2002, the accumulated sold units surpassed 8 million as of August this year. With the operation of the Changzhou plant which can produce 300,000 vehicles a year, Hyundai Motor Group now possesses a production capacity of 2.4 million units per year through eight factories in China.”
The opening of the Changzhou manufacturing plant coincides with Hyundai Motor’s 14th year of operation in China after it established the company on October 18, 2002. The company’s cumulative sales reached 4 million units in 2012, 10 years after the foundation in China, exceeded 8 million units as of August this year, and stood at 8.11 million units by the end of September. Given such an increasing trend, Hyundai Motor said it hopes to sell 10 million vehicles in China by the first half of 2018.
Hyundai Motor and its partner Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. (BAIC) invested 1 trillion won (US$885.74 million) each in the Changzhou plant. The new plant, which opened on the day in 18 months after they began the construction in April last year, went into operation in earnest starting with the Verna Yuena.
Sui Zhenjiang, deputy mayor of Beijing, and Yuan Tongli, vice-governor of Hebei Province, said the Changzhou plant is part of the Chinese government’s unification strategy of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. Yuan Tongli, vice-governor of Hebei Province, said, “With the completion of the Changzhou plant, we expect that it will develop the unification strategy further and create more opportunities between Korea and China.”