Joint Mozambique S Korea plant to assemble Hyundai cars

A worker looks at the engine bay beneath the cab of a Hyundai HD72 light truck

An assembly plant of South Korean car brand Hyundai was inaugurated Thursday in the industrial zone of the city of Matola, near Maputo, as part of a Mozambican-South Korean partnership, according to local news agency AIM.
The partnership, called Somyoung Motors, is a private investment between Somotor of Mozambique, the majority shareholder and Young-
Som of South Korea, which invested USD5.45 million including construction of the factory and purchase of the equipment needed to assemble the vehicles.
The plant has an installed capacity to assemble 4,500 cars per year and in an initial phase will assemble five vehicles per day, which will increase to 1,200 units in 2015 and 2,500 in 2016.
Somyoung Motors is currently assembling Hyundai i10 model cars, which are sold at a unit price of US$12,000, and the Accent 1.6 model, which will be placed on the market priced at US$23,000 each.
Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza said at the plant’s inauguration ceremony, that 542,000 cars are currently registered in Mozambique and 95 percent of the 45 existing brands in the country are of Asian origin. MDT/Macauhub