Samsung To Advance Launch Of Car Project

This follows the completion of building work this week on its integrated car plant in Pusan, three months ahead of schedule. The end of construction coincides with signs that Samsung has accelerated its carmaking timetable.

The company recently opened a Frankfurt office as a listening post for European markets.

In September, it opened a US design studio in California, on which it will eventually spend $20 million, to develop vehicles for international sale.

Although Samsung Motors is not planning to sell cars in Europe until 2002 at the earliest, it is already believed to have contacted distributors in leading markets. The completion of building work means Samsung Motors is on track to start volume production by early 1998.

 

The company, which has invested $2.5 billion in its new plant, plans to build 80,000 vehicles in the first year, rising to 240,000 a year by the end of its first investment phase.

Output is scheduled to reach 500,000 units a year by the end of a second stage. Prototype vehicles from the new plant, being built with technical help from Nissan Motor of Japan, are due to start rolling out within the next four months in the gradual build-up to mass production.

Samsung says it will spend almost $6 billion by 2002 to further its ambitions to become one of the worlds leading carmakers by early next century.

The company, one of Koreas largest conglomerates, expects to build up to eight different models at its Pusan plant ranging from a compact hatchback to a luxury saloon.Production is forecast to reach 1.5 million units a year by 2010.

Financial Times

Kun-Hee Lee, Samsung group chairman, recognised that the companys success would largely depend on its relations with local components suppliers.

Other Korean carmakers have been let down in the past by a reputation for poor quality, often because of inferior components.