Hyundai rolls out 300,000th export car

Chennai, Oct 31 (UNI) Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) today achieved a significant milestone with export of its 300,000th Santro, its flagship brand called 'Atos Prime' to overseas market in less than seven years of its operations in the country.

The consignment was loaded for shipment at Chennai port today.

HMIL, which started its operations in December 1999, rolled out the fastest 200,000th export car in October 2005.

The company crossed the next one-lakh car in less than a year, making the 300,000th roll-out the fastest in the industry, a release here said.

With the worldwide demand for Hyundai cars increasing, the export order bagged this year reflected an overall increase of 22 per cent.

ie. 123,113 units in 2006 (Santro-110,394, Accent-12,719) compared to 100,774 units (Santro-91201, Accent-9573) units in the year 2005, the release said.

The company was foraying into new markets to reach more and more global customers. Presently, Hyundai India was exporting Santro and Accent mainly to Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

The enormous demand for Hyundai products in the domestic and overseas markets had made it imperative for HMIL to expand capacity.

The second plant which was under construction would double Hyundai's capacity to 600,000 units per annum by the time it commenced production in early 2008.

Out of the 600,000 units, HMIL expected to export about 50 per cent of the production, the release said.

Commenting on the company's export performance HMIL Managing Director H S Lheem said "Hyundai is currently India's largest exporter in the automobile industry and we are extremely keen to maintain our competitiveness in this sphere. Our recent investments plans are in line with this and the need to make India the global hub for Hyundai's small car." UNI AKN JJ 1925