Production Base for Europe
Hyundai Mobis Co. said on April 19 that it has entered mass production of head and rear lamps for cars at its plant in Czech Republic.
The Korea’s largest auto parts producer aims at catching two birds with one stone; the acceleration of inroads into set-car makers in Europe and the assistance in the global competitiveness of Hyundai-Kia motors, by nurturing the plant to be an auto part production base specialized for the European market.
Through the investment of 140 billion won (US$123 million), Hyundai Mobis has completed the construction of a 54,000 square meter plant on the land of 190,000 square meters, which is capable of producing head lamps for 750,000 vehicles and rear lamps for another 750,000 units on annual base, according to the company.
The lamps will be delivered to Hyundai Motor's Czech plant and Kia's Slovakia plant, both about two hours away, which would contribute to reduction of transportation time and cost as well as enable a real time response to the strategic production.
Until now, the two carmakers have used the lamps manufactured in South Korea. It took more than a month for the auto parts to arrive at a harbor in Slovenia, which prohibited a flexible production schedule.
The Czech plant is the third overseas lamp plant of Hyundai Mobis following the two lamp plants in China and Mexico.