Hyundai Czech unit sees soaring sales, revenues in first quarter

The Czech unit of South Korean motor manufacturer Hyundai, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Czech (HMMC), was one of the outstanding foreign performers for the parent company in the first quarter of the year.

Sales of cars produced at the Nošovice plant rose to 83,000 units in the first three months of the year from 57,000 in the same period in 2011. Revenue from those sales soared by 67 percent compared with the first quarter of 2011.

‘We are now running at full steam.’

HMMC launched mass production of its new model the i30 hatchback at the Czech plant at the start of the year with the model now accounting for around a third of overall production there. “We are now running at full steam,” company spokesman Petr Vaněk told Czech Position. HMMC has a target to produce around 300,000 cars at its Czech plant this year. It directly employs around 3,500 people on three production shifts with another 7,000 jobs believed to have been created as a result of the plant’s opening in November 2008.

Hyundai has plants outside South Korea in the US, China, India, Turkey and Russia. The Russian plant announced a jump to 55,000 in the number of cars sold from the plant in the first quarter compared with 14,000 in the first quarter of 2012. Revenues rose by 292 percent to 715 billion South Korean won.

Hyundai’s worldwide operations announced a 10.6 percent increase in sales revenue and 24.9 percent climb in profit for the first quarter.