Business
International
Hyundai to set up Czech plant
- By AFP
Prague, March 28: The Czech Republic is set to join Europe's auto major league with an announcement by South Korean group Hyundai that it will site its first European plant at Nosovice, in the east of the country.
Hyundai's $963 million-$1.2 billion factory should begin production in October 2008 and reach full capacity of 300,000 vehicles in 2009.
That production, added to the just under 600,000 cars produced by Volkswagen's Skoda Auto and the Franco-Japanese joint venture Toyota Peugeot Citroen Automobile in 2005 would put the Czech Republic up with Germany, France, Britain and Italy as one of Europe's major car producers.
"Czech car production could even start to overtake that of Italy," Michael Steventon, of KPMG's auto section in London said. Hyundai's senior vice president In-Seo Kim said Monday in a joint press conference with Czech industry minister Milan Urban:
"The Czech Republic convinced us that it was the ideal strategic location for our European manufacturing operations," adding that 3,000 direct jobs would be created by the plant.