The Hindu : Business : Hyundai reaches another milestone

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 19, 2005

Business

Business

Hyundai reaches another milestone

Special Correspondent

Company ships 200,000th car from the Chennai Port

— Photo: Bijoy Ghosh

EXPORT EFFORT: (from left to right): S. S. Yang, Managing Director, Hyundai Motor India; V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council; B. V. R. Subbu, President, Hyundai Motor India; and K. Suresh, Chairman, Chennai Port, at a function to mark the export of the 200,000th Hyundai car on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (HMIL) is hoping to end the current financial year with export sales of around Rs. 2,700 crore, according to its President B. V. R. Subbu.

In the first half of the current financial year, the company shipped out 52,000 cars and recorded export sales of around Rs. 1,325 crore, he told presspersons in an informal chat after a function got up to mark the loading of the 200,000th car for shipment at the Chennai Port on Tuesday. The company's export sales during 2004-05 stood at Rs. 1,700 crore, up from Rs. 1,100 crore in the preceding year.

Export journey

"We are now the single largest manufacturer-exporter after the oil companies,'' Mr. Subbu said. The export journey of HMIL commenced in December 1999 with a small shipment to Nepal. Subsequently, it began exporting components to its parents in South Korea. After the launch of Santro Xing in 2003, HMIL had started shipping to Europe, he said. HMIL reached the 50,000-mark in January 2004 and the one-lakh figure last year. "Within 12 months thereon, we are now able to reach the two lakh numbers,'' he pointed out. This milestone was achieved in less than six years since the first car rolled out of its Irrungattukottai plant in Tamil Nadu in December 1999.

"This is the fastest 200,000th export car roll-out by any manufacturer in India,'' he said. Mr. Subbu said that about half the company's exports went to markets like North America and Europe. "This reflected the quality standards of not only the car manufacturer but also components' makers in India,'' he pointed out. "With increasing acceptance of our cars in world's important markets, we plan to increase the number of countries as well as the models we export over the next few years," he added.

HMIL exports Santro Xing, called "Atos Prime" in the overseas markets, and the Accent to over 60 countries in Europe, Africa, West Asia, Latin America and Asia.

The most important markets for HMIL are Italy, Germany, Greece, Spain, Algeria, South Africa, Mexico and Colombia. The 200,000th car, a bright red Atos Prime — is headed for Italy, HMIL's largest overseas market. Santro accounts for nearly 90 per cent of Hyundai's exports and is sold mainly in the European countries.

The company recorded combined sales of 2.16 lakh during the calendar year 2004 with a growth of 43 per cent over 2003. HMIL markets 26 variants of passenger cars in six segments — Santro in B segment, Getz in B+ segment, Accent in C segment, Elantra in D segment, Sonata in E segment and Tucson and Terracan in SUV segment.

Mr. Subbu said that HMIL could be making the sedan Verna in India in the third quarter of 2006. It could be positioned price-wise between Accent and Elantra. The company would be looking at a production of 1,500-2,000 vehicles a month.

Capacity expansion

On the company's expansion plan, Mr. Subbu said the levelling work was currently on and expected the civil job to begin soon. He expected the expansion project to go on stream in 15-18 months thereon. HMIL had announced plans for a second plant to produce 1.50 lakh cars annually, raising its total production capacity to four lakh per annum by 2007.

The plant would be built on a 2.1 million sq.m. site adjacent to the existing facility with an investment of $450-500 million. Mr. Subbu expected the HMIL's expansion to see an additional investment of the order of $100 million from vendors.

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