GWANGJU < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

The Kia Motors plant in Gwangju City said on Jan. 5 that it had recorded 488,154 in units manufactured in 2011, the largest production, exceeding its original goal of 483,000 units. The figure is up 18.7% from 411,196 in 2010 when the automaker company surpassed 400,000 in manufacturing units for the first time. Especially compared with 1998 when its annual manufacturing units hovered below 60,000 with the possibility of the company going bankruptcy, the production has drastically grown a whopping 715.4%. The remarkable growth is attributed to its improving mass production system with the enhancing capacity of manufacturing 500,000 units by adding new production lines and its achieving goal of not causing any labor disputes for two consecutive months in 2010 and 2011.

If you take a close look at the figure based on each vehicle line, production performance recorded 167,557 for Soul, 176,489 for Sportage R, 11,098 for minibus lines, 38,938 for Carens and 4,072 for others including military vehicle and big-size bus lines. Aside from recording the largest manufacturing volume, Sportage also surpassed one million units in accumulated production last year. Annual production for Kia Motors Gwangju plant amounted to 59,864 in 1998, 161,002 in 2000, 144,028 in 2003, 312,622 in 2006, 323,066 in 2009 and 411,196 in 2010.

An employee at the Gwangju plant said that "The increasing production makes supply of components and management of workforces stable for partners, resulting in positive achievements such as growing together with our partners," adding that "We will fulfill our social responsibility by taking initiative in contributing to the community."

Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (Oct. 12, 2011)

** This is an English translation of a Korean news article.