Kia said the new facility. located in Jiangsu province, indicates its plan to push overseas production to one million units by 2009.
When in full operation, the facility will have an annual production capacity of 300,000, bringing total production capacity in China to 430,000.
In addition to the 300,000-unit annual capacity Slovakia plant which began production in December of 2006, Kia’s overseas production capacity will be further boosted to 1,030,000 units annually with the completion of Kia’s first north American plant in Georgia, USA in the second half of 2009.
Mong-Koo Chung, Kia Motors chairman and CEO said: “The new plant is a very important milestone in the evolution of the Kia brand in the increasingly competitive Chinese market as Kia Motors strives to be among the top makers in China market by the end of the decade.”
In 2008, Kia plans to produce 100,000 units each at the two Chinese plants to meet its annual production and sales target of 200,000 units. By the time the second plant is operating at full capacity in 2010, Kia expects to sell 440,000 vehicles in the Chinese market.
Currently, the new plant employs 1,400 workers and plans to add an additional 1,350 employees to bring the total direct employment by the plant to 2,750 people.
This will bring the total direct and indirect employment through Kia investments in the area to 17,150 jobs including the 2,400 workers at the first plant as well as approximately 12,000 workers at supplier firms. The new plant is situated on 1,470,000 square meters of land with 270,000 square meters of building space.
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