Hyundai Motors may put up manufacturing plant in RP

An ASEAN-Korea or a Philippine-Korea Free Trade Agreement may help convince Hyundai Motors Co. to finally set up manufacturing operations in the Philippines, according to top officials of Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (HARI).

HARI is the official distributor of Hyundai vehicles in the Philippines. Hyundai Motors Co. currently has no equity participation in HARI.

HARI officials led by its chairman, former banker, Edward Go; president and chief executive officer Conrad G. Marty and managing director Fe Agudo, admitted that Hyundai has explored the option of putting up assembly operations in the Philippines.

However, the three HARI officials explained that there is a need first to build up a domestic base.

Marty and Agudo disclosed that, HARI’s sales has only started picking up this year with a projected full year sale of about 5,000 units.

According to Marty, HARI sold only about 3,000 units in 2004.

For this year, Agudo said, HARI is projecting a 30 percent growth that would hopefully propel Hyundai to the top five in local automotive sales.

This year, Agudo said, Hyundai has already managed to improve its position from No. 9 to No. 6.

Future plans for the local assembly of Hyundai vehicles in the Philippines, Agudo admitted, could be favorably helped once there is an FTA in place either among the ASEAN countries and Korea or between the Philippines and Korea.

Hyundai, though, Agudo said, would still have to evaluate such plans based on the terms of the FTA.

Hyundai already has assembly operations in Malaysia and Thailand. Hyundai entered the Philippines in the 1990s but temporarily left for a couple of years before HARI was established in 2001, Agudo said.

However, even though Hyundai had no official distributor for a couple of years, Agudo admitted, a gray market existed for Hyundai vehicles.

In fact, the presence of a gray market, Agudo said, presented unwanted competition for HARI when it started operating in 2001 resulting in low sales.

Fortunately, a change in Korean export policy has helped curb the gray market allowing HARI to improve its local sales.

Hyundai is also introducing a new diesel engine for its small sedan model, Accent, which is expected to directly compete with Toyota’s current best seller model Vios.

The CRDi engine is also available in Hyundai’s multipurpose vehicle Matrix.

Its van model, Starex, Marty said, is No. 1 in the van segment.