Monday, September 13, 2004
China, Hyundai may ink $1.3-bn taxi deal
REUTERS
SEOUL: Hyundai Motor, South Korea’s largest auto maker, said on Thursday it was in talks to sell about 80,000 taxis to China, worth $1.3bn, as part of Beijing’s plans to upgrade its transport.
Hyundai also reiterated its plan to raise output in the world’s fast-growing automotive market to 600,000 units a year from ’07, compared with the current 150,000 units. To do so, it will pump in an extra $940m in China to make it the company’s largest overseas production base, it said in a statement.
“Hyundai Motor will build a second plant in China to secure the economies of scale and make it a core overseas base that produces quality and competitive products,” Hyundai Motor chairman Chung Mong-koo said in the statement. The plan followed the announcement by the car maker that it was setting up a $780m joint venture in China to produce commercial vehicles.
Hyundai sold 52,128 units via its Chinese passenger car joint venture last year and 78,542 units in the eight months to August this year.
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