Hyundai (SEO:005380) May Build Its Third Plant in China Next Year

Beijing, Sep 9, 2009 AEST (ABN Newswire) - South Korea's Hyundai Motor (SEO:005380) and its China partner will start building their third plant in China early next year to catch up with the sales growing pace in this market.

In August, China's auto sales usually slip about 20% in the period. But this year, passenger car sales last month rose 90.18 per cent from a year earlier, thanks to tax cuts and government subsidies.

Despite the global auto industry was strongly hit by the financial crisis, the Chinese automobile market witnessed a surprising sales boom in August, with some top automakers including Beijing Hyundai Motor, Shanghai General Motors and Chang'an Ford Mazda Automobile nearly doubled their sales.

Hyundai has raised its China sales target for 2009 to 500,000 units from 300,000 units, up sharply from last year's 290,000 units, while its Japanese and US rivals also put more hope on the fast growing market.

Beijing Hyundai's new plant could add 300,000 more units of capacity to the automaker, increasing the total capacity to 900,000 units. The site for the plant has yet been decided.

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Michelle Liang Asia Business News Asia Bureau Tel: +61-2-9247-4344 Email: michelle.liang@abnnewswire.net