SEOUL (AFP) — Hyundai Motor said Monday that overseas production this year exceeded exports from domestic plants for the first time ever, reflecting efforts by South Korea's top automaker to go global.
In the seven months to July, production by overseas plants reached 651,833 vehicles or 50.1 percent of total sales abroad compared to 46.1 percent in the same period last year.
Exports from domestic plants in January-July stood at 650,401, or 49.9 percent.
"Such figures reflect our efforts to meet diverse demands abroad and secure a global production base," spokesman Jake Jang told AFP.
The automaker has also faced a series of work stoppages at home.
Overseas production has increased from 18.8 percent in 2003 to 45.6 percent last year. Hyundai aims to boost overseas production to two million by 2011.
The company now has plants in the United States, China, India and Turkey and plants are under construction in the Czech Republic and Russia. There are also plans to establish a factory in Brazil.
Hyundai Motor with its affiliate Kia Motors forms the Hyundai Automotive Group, the world's sixth largest automaker, pushing to become number five.
On Monday group chairman Chung Mong-Koo said it would invest more than 11 trillion won (10.5 billion dollars) this year, including 2.7 trillion won for research and development.
He said two trillion won of the total would be spent for Hyundai Steel, which aims to build an integrated plant by 2011 to help secure stable supplies.
Chung said the group would begin mass production of low-emission vehicles next year.
The investment plan came three days after Chung was pardoned in an amnesty for convicted business tycoons.
Chung, 69, was convicted last year of raising a slush fund to bribe government officials and others. An appeal court in June had upheld a suspended three-year jail sentence.
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