Renault Samsung tops 400,000 mark in exports

By Kim Tae-gyu

Korean automaker Renault Samsung Motors broke the 400,000 mark for outbound vehicle shipments after less than 11 years of operations here.

Renault Samsung said Monday that its cumulative export volume reached 400,250 as of last week underpinned by a record year in 2010 when the Busan-based company shipped 115,783 vehicles to meet global demand.

This compares to a mere 192 in 2000 when the firm was founded. The figures remained meager at just 140 and 294 over the following two years, respectively.

Renault Samsung started increasing its overseas sales in 2006 with 41,320, which represented an 11.4-fold growth from 3,610 the previous year.

Last year’s exports accounted for more than 40 percent of the firm’s total sales with some 80 countries from the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Europe demanding its automobiles.

Things also seem to be good for 2011. During the first two months of this year, its shipments abroad almost doubled last year’s.

``We achieved remarkable growth in exports as we jointly developed cars here with Renault and Nissan, and exported them through the global networks of Renault Nissan as well as sharing after-service networks to maximize synergy,’’ a Renault Samsung spokesman said.

He said that its SM3 sedan and QM5 crossover utility vehicle especially won the hearts and minds of global customers as combined they accounted for about 95 percent of exports. Also included in its line-up are the SM5 and SM7 sedans.

Renault Samsung expects exports will keep rising with the Korea-EU free trade agreement (FTA), which is supposed to go into effect in July.

``Increased exports through the Renault-Nissan networks mean that our products satisfy all of Renault-Nissan’s stringent quality standards and customer satisfaction with our products in global markets is also high,’’ Senior Executive Managing Director Nah Kisung said in a statement.

``Since the SM5 went on sale in Europe in January this year, we expanded our export countries to more than 80 around the world and our exports are expected to steadily grow in the future, bolstered by the improvement of our external environment resulting from the effectuation of the Korea-EU FTA in the near future.’’