Kia Motors has completed its new manufacturing plant in Mexico, its first in Latin America – and the second in the Americas after its Georgia facility in the US. Located in Pesquería, Nuevo León and requiring an initial investment of around US$3 billion (RM12.9bil), the 500-hectare site was built in just 13 months, representing the fastest completion of any factory in the South Korean carmaker’s history.
“Thanks to the state-of-the-art technology and manufacturing processes being introduced to the plant, we expect our facility to be one of the most environmentally-friendly automotive manufacturing plants in the region,” said Kia Motors Mexico president Seong-Bae Kim.
“Once mass production commences, it will take less than one minute for a vehicle to come off the assembly line, making our facility among the most productive among all Kia plants globally.”
The company will conduct quality assurance testing and pilot production at the facility over the next six months, before it starts mass production of the Cerato sedan there in mid-2016.
The Mexico plant is Kia’s 11th, joining other such facilities in Korea, China, Slovakia, Russia and the US. It includes technologies such as the company’s biggest stamping press anywhere in the world – an 18-metre behemoth weighing 3,862 tons, costing a massive US$75 million. Other features include an advanced monitoring system promoting continual improvement in energy saving and environmental conservation.
Elsewhere, there’s an integrated water treatment plant preventing soil contamination and harmful runoff from flowing into the nearby Pesquería River, as well as LED lighting – all in the name of reducing the facility’s impact to the environment. There are plans to introduce other green production technologies, too, such as solar energy.
Once up and running, the plant will boast an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles, representing 10% of Kia’s total production – 60% of the output will be destined for North America, while 20% will be sold to the Mexican market alone; the remaining 20% will be exported to other countries in Latin America. With the facility, Kia is expected to provide around 14,000 direct jobs and 56,000 indirect jobs.
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It is very sad indeed proton’s tg malim plant ability to produce 500k cars a year never happened.
Just close down Proton la. Or convert it to CKD plant for other car maker and start to make money again. Otherwise it is just a waste of money.
Yes, things happen halfway around the world with nothing concerns proton at all, ini semua salah nobama, and yet we cans still find bashers bring up about proton. Amazing isnt it?
Meanwhile in Malaysia, thanks to the politicians we are still lingering on racial issues on who’s owning this land and who’s pendatang instead of working hard and try to promote our own brands to the global market. While we are busy fighting among ourselves on who’s the superior race over here, other countries who used to be way behind us (South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Myanmar etc) are busy advancing in terms of technology, economy and research in the global market. In the end, are we going to live in our own world of Malaysia and deny the fact that we need to compete globally to survive ?
I used to work under a Korean boss. He loves Malaysian food and the cultures. Only thing he hates is the red tapes our govt impose on new business he tries to expand. At the end the expansion plan went to Thailand and Malaysia lost not only job opportunities but also the investment. He did says the problem with Malaysia is our govt is not looking at long term. All just want quick money.
Golf MK7 Owner, you are right,absolutely.
The bastards are still telling God which race is superior while all of us know God is colour blind.
Look at Naza Kia….their sales have fallen greatly although they are given everlasting APs and perlindungan.Tun should direct the phrase “LAZY” at these dudes.
The distributorship of KIA vehicles in Bolehland is shambolic.The dead tycoon’s sons r more into property development than automobile sales.
2016 will be doubly challenging as Bolehland is unofficially in recession.Even mighty Petronas is lucky to breakeven next year.
North America Kia sales is ok.But it is high time KIA ditch Naza and give another bumiputra company a chance to succeed.