South Korea’s Hyundai Motor, the world’s third-largest automaker after Toyota and Volkswagen, said on Wednesday it’s considering constructing a automotive plant in Southeast Asia, with possible locations in Indonesia and Vietnam, a part of a move to diversify its business after falling sales in China.
Hyundai Motor currently doesn’t have a automotive factory in Southeast Asia, nevertheless it does have several assembly plants in Indonesia and Vietnam, where cars are built from kits consisting of major groups of components.
Last yr’s diplomatic spat between Beijing and Seoul over South Korea’s planned deployment of the U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense system hurt Hyundai and other South Korean corporations that rely heavily on the Chinese market, Reuters reported.
Hyundai expects its vehicle sales in China to succeed in about 900,000 in 2018, an improvement over last yr’s results, Vice Chairman and successor Chung Eui-sun said on the sidelines of a consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, an organization spokeswoman said.
Hyundai didn’t disclose sales estimates for China in 2017, but sales of 900,000 units would still be well below the production capability of 1.65 million vehicles in its largest market. Chung added that Hyundai plans to enter the Chinese fuel-cell electric vehicle market, after the automaker showed off its recent fuel-cell electric vehicle, the NEXO, with an estimated range of 370 miles on the show.
Southeast Asia is understood to have engaged with Japanese automakers, especially Toyota, while Hyundai has avoided direct combat with them. “It’s very difficult to compete with the Japanese in Southeast Asia, but I think if Hyundai tried, they could actually create some competition,” said Ferry Wong, head of equity research at Citigroup Inc. in Indonesia.
Source: Reuters | Business Insider | herald.co.zw
