Hyundai Glovis Co., one of South Korea's leading automotive logistics support companies, said Friday that it has opened a car parts export plant that will ship products to China.
The plant located at the Wanju Techno Valley complex, some 235 kilometers south of Seoul, will assemble and package knock-down vehicle kits that will be shipped to Hyundai Motor Co.'s Sichuan Province plant in China. The plant is scheduled to be opened in the first half of this year.
Both Hyundai Glovis and Hyundai Motor belong to Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth largest automotive conglomerate.
The logistics company said the knock-down kits for vehicles will be made from 3,000 components supplied by 200 parts suppliers. The kits will be used to assemble Hyundai's Trago Xcient large truck, the Mighty mid-sized truck and County bus.
Hyundai Glovis said that once full production starts, it will be able to export parts for 40,000 commercial vehicles from its Jeonju plant.
Glovis said that it will deliver the kits in a "just in time" manner that can reduce logistics and inventory costs. This can also improve the overall competitiveness of the vehicles made. The company said it will use ships to move the kits from South Korea to China, and then transport them up a Yangtze canal on barges to an inland port near the Hyundai plant.
Besides the new facility and shipments to China, Glovis has been sending car parts and kits to Hyundai and Kia Motors Corp. assembly lines in nine countries. It has a knock-down kit export plant in Ulsan and Asan. (Yonhap)
