South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor said Feb. 19 it is building a car plant in Brazil, its first in Latin America. The CAOA group, a distributor of Hyundai cars in Brazil, will foot the entire bill for the construction while the South Korean firm supplies it with auto parts, Hyundai spokesman Ki Jin-Ho said.
"Hyundai Motor is not investing money but shipping our modules to be assembled into cars at the plant in Brazil," Ki said.
The plant, expected to open during the first half of this year, will produce 50,000 vehicles a year by 2009. Production will start with small trucks and utility vehicles.
Hyundai Motor, together with its sister firm Kia Motors, accounts for 70% of South Korea's car market and is the world's sixth largest automaker. It has actively expanded its world business presence with factories in the U.S. Europe, China, India and Turkey, partly to offset the effect of the strong won which makes Korean exports more expensive.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007
