Hyundai Will Reduce Kia"s Personnel and Factories
Hyundai Motor Company will close a number of Kia's factories and reduce surplus employees in the course of their merger and unification.It will commence negotiations with foreign motor companies on forming partnerships after curtailing Kia's operations.
Kia has assembly lines in Asan, Sohari and Kwangju. Its Enterprise and Credos models are produced in Asan, and its one-ton trucks, Carnival and Avela, are built in Sohari while other models are produced in Kwangju.
A source from Kia said on January 14, 'The facilities in question will be concentrated in Asan and some of Kia's foreign bases.'
Chung Mong Kyu, vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Company, had an interview with Reuter Press at the Detroit Motor Show last week and asserted, 'Hyundai will carry out factory shutdowns, first, before finding joint partners for mutual business objectives.'
He also mentioned, 'For the better introduction of foreign capital, Hyundai and Kia should reduce the liability ratio from 270 percent to under the 200-percent level, which will be a lot lower than the average 400 percent debt rate of Korean companies.'
As for the size of layoffs proposed for the 33,000 Kia employees, no clear number has been suggested but the merger created a lot of overlapping positions.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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