Hyundai Motors India's 2nd plant gets operational today

Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, Feb 2 (UNI) In order to cater to the demand of the domestic as well as the export markets, Hyundai Motors India Ltd's (HMIL) second plant began operation here today with the investment of Rs 4,000 crore (one billion dollars), that will take its total production capacity to 6,00,000 units.

''With the investment of one billion dollars and commissioning of the second plant besides the existing plant Chennai 1 with annual production of 3,00,000 units, we will now be able to produce twice as many cars, taking its capacity to six lakh units per annum, company Chairman Chung Mong-Koo told reporters here.

The new plant will be dedicated largely to the production of 'i10' model, he said, adding that the facility will be the platform for future growth.

With the commissioning of the new plant, the country's second largest car maker has set a target of 5.3 lakh units by the end of this year, company's Senior Vice Pesident (Marketing and Sales) Arvind Saxena said, adding that the full capacity will be achieved by 2009-end.

He also said in order to further expand its export business, Hundai Motors India's exports destination are expected to increase up to 90 from existing 73 by the end of this year.

Inaugurating the plant, TamilNadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi invited automobile players to come and invest in the state, adding that in the past 20 months 12 MoUs have been signed with the auto firms which will fetch about Rs !5,000 crore investment and create 1.30 lakh employment.

The function was attended by Communications and Information Technology Minister A Raja along with several other dignitaries were present.

Mr Saxena said the firms will scale up its dealers network up to 300 from existing 230 by the end of this year.

Hundai Motors India markets 34 variants of passenger cars across segments. The Santro in the B segment, Getz Prime, i10 in the B+ segment, the Accent and Verna in the C segment, the Elantra in the D segment,the Sonata Embera in the E segment and the Tucson in the SUV segment.

The South Korean motor manufacturer which had made its way into India in 1998 registered a growth of 41.4 per cent at 37,701 units in the last month over the same period a year ago.

The domestic sales grew by 39.1 per cent 24,301 units, while the exports grew by 45.6 per cent at 13,400 units in January over the corresponding period previous year.

The company has sold over 25,000 units of i10 since its launch in October last year.

The cumulative sales for January 2007 had been 26,661 units. The segment-wise cumulative sales in the month of January 2008 are as follows: A1 Segment 33,434 units; A2 Segment 4,236 units; A3 Segment 1unit; A4 Segment 25 units; and SUV Segment 5 units.

UNI SBA AK AS1431