Hyundai in advanced talks with Indonesian government to open factory
A group of top executives from Hyundai Motors met with Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo yesterday discussing the carmaker’s plan to invest in a production plant. According to a report in The Jakarta Post, such an investment has been talked about within the industry since last year with Hyundai having a purse of over $800 million (RM3.3 billion) to spend and start building the factory by the end of the year. However, the eventual investment value is still being discussed.
It’ll be a massively urgent project looking at the timeline stated in the report with production to begin by 2021 and a production capacity of 250,000 cars annually. For the domestic market, the factory will focus on making SUVs, MPVs, hatchbacks and sedans. 40 per cent of production will also go to the export market. The factory will create about 3,500 job opportunities
"Hyundai has reiterated its commitment to kick off investments in Indonesia as soon as possible, because it believes [the country] is the right place for its production base for both the domestic and export market," said Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto after the meeting.
Among the areas Hyundai has surveyed for the plant’s location are Karawang, Purwakarta and Subang, which are all industrial estates around West Java.
The Hyundai Motors group are represented by executive vice chairman Chung Eui-Sun, president Kong Young-Woon, executive VP Park Hong-Jae and senior VP Lee Young-Tack.
Reports from Korean media, however, claims that the deal is not as near to be finalised with The Korea Herald quoting a company official that “nothing has been confirmed about building plants in Indonesia.”
Indonesia is currently the largest automotive market in the region with a TIV of around 1.04 million vehicles in 2018 (passenger and commercial vehicles).
