 "Rajasthan minister says Hyundai wants to set foot in state, eyeing expansion")
Rajasthan's Industry Minister today said that Korean automajor Hyundai has shown interest in setting up a plant in the desert state, which has already attracted automajors like Honda and Hero.
A team of Rajasthan government officials is scheduled to meet Hyundai office bearers at company's Sriperumbudur factory, near Chennai, tomorrow.
While an email sent to Hyundai did not elicit a reply, Rajasthan's Industry Minister Gajendra Singh confirmed the development, "Yes they have shown interest in Rajasthan, tomorrow our team is going to their plant, they have called us over. They want to have one in North India also and Rajasthan is an ideal place for that. Honda and others are coming in now, so they (Hyundai) are trying to follow. Korean zone is coming up, they feel that they can be in the Korean zone in the State," said Gajendra Singh, Minister of Industries."
He was here along with his team to participate in a roadshow to promote 'Resurgent Rajasthan Partnership Summit' which will held in November 19-20, 2015.
Veenu Gupta, principal secretary to State of Rajasthan and D B Gupta, principal secretary - public works department - Government of Rajasthan have also confirmed. Both of them will be part of a team which will visit Hyundai factory to hold talks.
With an investment of over $ 2.7 billion $and vendor investment of $ 1.2 billion, Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) is Tamil Nadu's largest investor.
Hyundai's plant near Chennai is a fully integrated state-of-the-art manufacturing plant and boasts advance production, quality and testing capabilities. Spread over a total area of 535 acres, there are two plants inside producing 680,000 units between them.
While Plant 1 has a production capacity of 330,000 units, Plant 2 can produce 350,000 units. Capacity utilisation of the factory is nearly 91% for the country's largest car exporter. The utilisation level is the highest in the industry, according to reports.
The state was criticised for loosing out Ford, which decided to take up its expansion plan in Gujarat and loosing out French auto maker Peugeot, which again choose Gujarat. But Tamil Nadu's Industries Minister P Thangamani said, "Ford India's decision to set up its second plant in Gujarat, was merely business reason for locating its second plant in Gujarat". He quoted Ford's letter in which the US automajor stated the above reason.
Glass maker Saint-Gobain of France recently inaugurated its Rs 1,000-crore glass manufacturing facility in Bhiwadi in Rajasthan. The company first set up its facility in Tamil Nadu and decided to take up the phase-II of India's expansion in Rajasthan.