 "India may beat South Korea to top 5 spot in global car production this year")
The ongoing strike at Hyundai Motor's South Korea facilities might just push India to the top 5 spot in global car production this year. India ranked sixth in global car production during the first eight months this year producing 2.71 million vehicles, just behind South Korea's 2.71 million vehicles during the same period.
India's production, however, has grown by 6.6% year-on-year (y-o-y), while South Korea's production has fallen by 5% during January to August 2016. In fact, as per reports, in July India had toppled Korea to claim the fifth spot owing to the partial stoppages in production at Hyundai's South Korean facilities during the month.
China production grew by 8.8% during the first eight months this year, US by 2.4%, Germany by 2.3%, while production in Japan fell by 1.8%.
As per data from IHS Automotive, passenger car production in India had grown by 6.6% during the first eight months of this year to 2.71 million units, up from 2.55 million units during the same period last year. As for South Korea, the production actually dipped by 5% to 2.81 million units during January to August from 2.96 million units last year. IHS shared data on production in China, India, Japan and South Korea.
Anil Sharma, analyst with IHS Automotive felt that production issues at Hyundai in South Korea are real and actually labour-management relationships are at their worst in many years.
Earlier this week, the labour unions at Hyundai staged a nationwide strike in 12 years, after there were series of partial stoppages since July at the automaker's factories across South Korea, its biggest manufacturing base which produces nearly 40% of its vehicles sold globally last year. As per international media reports, the disruption had led to lost production of 114,000 vehicles worth $2.26 billion so far.
In July, India had toppled South Korea to claim the fifth spot in global car production, producing 2.57 million cars between January to July, right ahead of South Korea's 2.55 million vehicles. The top four spots went to Germany (3.62 million), Japan (5.40 million), the US (7.08 million), and China (12.79 million).
Reports suggest that the production loss trend might continue in South Korea further in the year, which may result in the country losing the fifth spot on an annual basis.
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*Estimates from Industry sources
Source: IHS Automotive
