Hyundai increases production to meet demand in the U.S.

It's been full steam ahead for Hyundai and now with the popularity of their vehicles booming, the pickings are slim. The automaker's North American CEO John Krafik is now reassuring that Hyundai will increase its production by 19 percent from September until year's end compared to the same period last year reports Automotive News.

Workers are expected to go with the flow of the company's new production schedule at the Alabama plant which has just added a third shift. The revised labor contract situation should now allow consumers to get their hands on more Elantras and Sonatas until the end of the year; a move that will result in an extra 20,000 units produced at the factory.

The Korean automaker blames the shortage of vehicles on the recent strikes at its headquarter plants. Although the labor disputes came to an end last week, the holdup cost the company a U.S.-bound shortage of about 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles of their number one sellers the Elantra and Sonata. But now the new agreement cuts the two 10-hour work shifts to an eight-hour day and nine-hour night shift, this results in a 15 percent reduction in production hours beginning in March. According to union heads, they expect productivity to only get better and foresee no loss of output.

Hyundai's largest South Korean plant currently cranks out 300 cars an hour, totaling 1.5 million cars a year.

"Hyundai has been running flat out," said Chris Richter, an auto analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific in Tokyo told Automotive News. "They don't have spare capacity lying around. It's going to put pressure on them to start adding capacity somewhere. Their investors and dealers are going to be screaming for more product."

 

Source: Examiner