Thursday, August 30, 2012

H. W. Park, MD & CEO, Hyundai Motors India talks to B&E on the present challenges

H. W. Park, MD & CEO, Hyundai Motors India talks to B&E on the present challenges – both internal and external – and the plans of his company for both the domestic and export markets

B&E: The company has been experiencing labour issues for the past many years in the Chennai plant. In fact, this very year, there have already been three such incidents reported. What is the current state of affairs at the plant?
HWP: The factory is now in a relatively safer state and we are currently in a review stage with the labour committee at the plant. We will be in a better position to comment about it after the review stage is over.

B&E: The overwhelming growth in the domestic market has brought about problems of production shortages for many companies. Is Hyundai one amongst them as well?
HWP: Not really. The impact has been minimal and the shortage lag only lasts for a day or two at worst. That is manageable.

B&E: So you do agree that there are shortages. Do you believe that the company will be able to recover from the situation of component shortage anytime soon?
HWP: Surely we will be able to do so. But it also depends on the health of the overall auto industry in India. The industry is growing at a fast pace, something which wasn’t initially expected by anyone. Hence, there has been a minor shortage from the component supplier side, but because we are a big player in the Indian automotive industry, we can handle the problem by adjusting our exports and domestic ratio.

B&E: If the company had been in a situation with no production constraint, would you have produced more cars?
HWP: No. As mentioned before, even today, the production constraint problem is very much negligible, as the lag only appears for a day or two.

B&E: There have been reports of Hyundai India manufacturing electric i10 for the parent company. Your comment...
HWP: For the electric i10, we are only providing parts for the chassis and the engine. This is because chassis for the model can not be locally assembled for the product that will be sold in Korea.

B&E: Initially, Hyundai focussed heavily on exports. So are your views changing in favour of the domestic market?
HWP: We at Hyundai enjoy such a liberty. If the demand in the local market is high, we can always adjust it by reducing the export volumes. As the Indian market is getting bigger, we are gearing up to cater to this rising demand of the Indian consumers.



          
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,