China Business in Crisis
Hyundai Motor’s plant in India has emerged as the auto giant’s largest overseas production base.
The company’s Indian plant rolled out 583,737 vehicles in the first 10 months of this year, down 2.97 percent from the same period of last year. But the figure was higher than the output of the company’s other overseas plants: 529,251 units in China, 285,600 in the U.S., 266,320 in the Czech Republic, 203,100 in Russia, 179,382 in Brazil and 143,943 in Turkey.
If the current trend holds, the Indian plant will beat the Chinese plant to become the largest overseas plant of Hyundai Motor. In 2016, the Chinese plant’s utilization rate peaked with 1,179,881 units, which were 510,000 units more than the output of the Indian plant.
However, following China’s economic retaliations against South Korean companies for the deployment of the THAAD System in South Korea, the Chinese plant’s production volume fell to 827,941 units in 2017 and 806,214 units last year.
By the end of October this year, the Chinese plant’s output decreased 20.12 percent on year, the largest decline among overseas plants. It was followed by -15.77 percent of the Turkish plant, -7.04 percent of the Czech Republic plant, -2.97 percent of the Indian plant and -0.2 percent of the Russian plant.
The Korean automaker is seeking breakthroughs in the United States and emerging markets to cope with the crisis of its Chinese operations. The company plans to produce its first pickup truck model at its Alabama plant in the United States, and is also considering adding other models to the plant to increase its utilization rate. It also plans to establish a car plant in Indonesia by investing about 2 trillion won.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor's sluggish production at overseas plants is directly connected to sales. This year, its domestic sales reached 612,347 units, a 3.4 percent increase from the same period last year, but its overseas sales shrank 5.1 percent to 3.017,230 units.