Hyundai Flexes Muscle Overseas
By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
This year is likely to see a meaningful mark for exports of Hyundai Motor Company as the sales of vehicles manufactured in its overseas plant are expected to surpass those of locally produced ones.
The nation's biggest automaker announced last month overseas-produced vehicles were up to 273,821 units, or 49 percent, out of its exports in the first quarter. The figure was up 1.2 percentage points from a year earlier and also up 3.4 percentage points from a year-round 45.6 percent.
Earlier this year, it said it aims to export 1.31 million vehicles manufactured in foreign plants, 53.7 percent of its yearly goal of 2.44 million.
Hyundai reported a 27.7 percent rise in its first-quarter net profit in a regulatory filing. For the first three months net income climbed to 392.6 billion won ($375.7 million) from 307.4 billion won in the same quarter last year.
It sold 442,971 vehicles in the first three months of the year, a 14.3 percent year-on-year increase. The company's sales rose 22 percent to 8.2 trillion won and operating profit also jumped 61 percent to 529.1 billion won.
Analysts say Hyundai will be able to maintain handsome earnings for the rest of this year on the back of the stabilizing Korean won versus the U.S. dollar, and sales of the new models led by luxury sedan Genesis.
The outcome, which resulted from expansion of its local foreign production, shows Hyundai's consistent advancement in foreign markets.
The rate of overseas production in Hyundai's exports was showing stable growth from 18.8 percent in 2003 to 46.2 percent in 2006 then fell back to 45.6 percent last year.
Sales from overseas plants, however, gained momentum again this year as the company launched second plants in India and China, which are each capable of manufacturing 300,000 vehicles a year.
Additional overseas plants are under construction in the Czech Republic and Russia. With them all in action by 2011, Hyundai will be equipped with a foreign production capacity of 2 million vehicles a year.
The maker is planning to apply diverse culturally sensitive marketing strategies to secure future competitiveness in the foreign market.
"We will focus on improving dealership networks and consistently hold corporate image promotions in advanced countries, while underscoring active marketing activity to intensify our market dominance in rapidly growing emerging markets," a Hyundai official said.
New products will have a pivotal role in exports growth and in the forefront is Genesis, Hyundai Motor's latest model.
First locally launched in January, the high-end sedan made an international debut at January's North American International Auto Show in Detroit and will be on the United States market in September.
Also, Beijing Hyundai introduced last month a local version of the Avante sedan, Elantra Yuedong, as the first of at least two models targeted for Chinese customers to launch this year.
Another new production, i30, is building a favorable reputation worldwide. In February, the hatchback model was named the car of the year chosen by car experts in Spain. Last November, the model was awarded car of the year by CARSguide, a local Australian media outlet.