Kia Motors has announced that it expects to reach the 15 millionth cumulative export (from South Korea factories) milestone later this month. This landmark achievement comes 40 years after its very first export shipment of ten units of the Brisa pickup truck to Qatar in 1975.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) is to lead a delegation of specialist UK automotive companies in a trade visit to Seoul, as the industry seeks to strengthen business links and partnerships with Korean companies.
The trade mission comes on the back of a record UK-Korea trading year. Korea is now the third biggest Asian export hub for the UK automotive industry – and the eighth largest export market. British car exports to Korea have grown by a record 476 per cent, with 13,337 vehicles shipped to the country last year compared with 2315 in 2009.
Nexen Tire’s Roadian HTX RH5 has won a US Good Design Award. The company’s N’FERA RU5 also won the Korean Good Design Awards and the firm’s N’blue Premium won the Korean Pin up Design Awards.
The US Good Design Awards is an annual design awards programme organized by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design (Illinois) in cooperation with the European Center for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies.
Attempts by Kumho Tire parent company Kumho Asiana to reacquire Kumho Buslines from private equity consortium KoFC IBKS KStone PEF have run into difficulties, with consortium backers KStone Partners and IBK Investment & Securities claiming Kumho Asiana has tried to force down the Kumho Buslines purchase price by pressuring other potential bidders to step away.
Although it is the smallest of the three Korean tyre makers, Nexen has surprised some observers by being the only company in the country to increase both sales and operating profits in the first quarter of 2014. Of course the figures also show that both Kumho and especially Hankook remain significantly bigger than Nexen in terms of both measures, but the news caps a strong quarter for Nexen, which also announced the opening of a European factory and a number of awards and OE deals in the period.
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