Hyundai Motor to consider third India factory

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group said on Tuesday it is looking at building a third factory in India, highlighting its growing appetite for expanding globally after an unofficial two-year moratorium on boosting capacity.

After meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Seoul, the group's chairman, Chung Mong-koo, told reporters that a new plant in India was under review, according to a Hyundai spokesman. But the spokesman added that the group has not made a final decision or decided if it would be built by Hyundai Motor or Kia.

The world's fifth-largest auto group, which is comprised of Hyundai Motor Co and its sister company Kia Motors Corp, already has several car plant projects underway. Hyundai Motor Co, which in India trails only Maruti Suzuki by market share, has two factories in Chennai, with a combined annual capacity of 680,000 vehicles.

Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and others are fighting to attract Hyundai's expansion plan, which is due for some time now.

Sources said that the meeting between the Prime Minister and the chief executive went on for nearly 30 minutes. Modi asked Chung to invest in India and the chief executive assured Modi he would consider doing so.