The rumor that General Motors is planning to abandon Korea as a production base is nothing new. Last January, for instance, British outlet the Daily Telegraph reported that GM was considering moving manufacturing operations from Korea to Europe in an effort to fill unused production capacity. But now that GM is planning to close at least two of its plants in Europe, a recently-surfaced rumor would have us believe that GM will relocate manufacturing from Incheon, Korea to China.
According to reports, the reasoning behind the move is the fact that GM has not posted a huge sales gain last year in Korea, despite changing the name from GM Daewoo to GM Korea and launching the Chevrolet brand in 2011. A gain in sales volume may have been necessary to justify Korean operations. A source close to the company told the Korean Herald that replacing Daewoo with Chevy was the first step in closing the Bupeyong factory in Incheon.
At play is also the timing of the political transition in South Korea, as the automaker may have been planning to pull its manufacturing position during the later years of the Lee Myung-bak administration. Lee Myung-bak assumed presidency in February 2008, which lasts for five years and is not renewable.
For its part, General Motors management has consistently downplayed or completely dismissed the rumors. “Our operations are flexible and are running at a healthy capacity at the moment. There is nothing to say beyond that,” GM Korea said in a statement, but added that “we are not going to comment on speculation. GM Korea is an integral part of the GM organization as GM Korea’s plants are an integral part of GM’s global manufacturing footprint.”
Adding to the suspicion is the early resignation of Mike Arcamone, CEO of GM Korea. Arcamone resigned in January before completing his term in the country and the company has not offered a specific reason for his departure.
The GM Authority Take
It would seems that this has foreshadowing written all over it. GM’s initial plan, before deciding to close Ellesmere Port plant in the UK and the Bochum plant in Germany, was — reportedly — to bring Chevy production to Europe in order to fill underutilized capacity. From there, the Chevy vehicles would be exported to Korea.
But now that the plan seems to call for a decrease of production capacity in Europe (to bring GM Europe to profitability), it would appear that GM will just move production to China — and export to Korea, Europe, and elsewhere, from there. At that, we wonder if Arcamone’s resignation had anything to do with this award from the country’s President.
Comments
I don’t think a Cruze made in China would sell in Europe , we in Europe have some bad experiences with stuff made in China.
I thought it was announced only a few months ago that the Encore would be made in Korea. Something about GM buying some manufacturing capacity on the cheap. Guess it wasn’t such a great deal.
So Encore will be built in China??
This isn’t official confirmation… so for all we know, Korean production can stay. But if it doesn’t, then the Encore could be made either in China or in North America.
I think they might as well just made the encore in America or else there will be people making critique about encore made in china will have bad quality
And the thing is that I don’t know why Buick doesn’t export the vehicles here to Taiwan (where I’m from) because ive seen magazines in Taiwan and when they saw the lacrosse the really like it but it doesn’t offer it there
That’s one of the reasons I’m a fan of the idea of Buick becoming a global brand. Taiwan is probably a smaller market than say something like Australia and, of course, Europe… But then there’s the Opel dilemma…
Because in Taiwan they have Opel, Buick, and Cadillac. And they export new Opels( new insignias, Astras etc) and Cadillacs( Cts, SRX, etc) but not newly designed bucks like the lacrosse or enclaves etc all they’re stck with us the old excelle, rendezvous, and previous gen of the Chinese Buick lacrosse
But what is the problem now? Most of Buick´s new vehicles are badge engineerd Opels with a waterfall grill. The next generation of the Buick LaCrosse will be definitely an Opel design. Since when are you a fan of a global Buick, Alex? And what do you mean with an Opel dilemma. Are the designers and engineers at GMNA so uninspired to give Buick its own brand identity? And the managers in Detroit are wondering, why the european unit is losing money, if that’s true at all, othewise GM wouldn´t keep Opel. Learn from the VW Goup, GM!!!
Any badge engineered vehicle is bad in my book.
But woulds so wrong with Opel and Buick platform sharing their lineup as long as Opel moves market.
Ive been saying this for a year, this how GM’s global lineup should look like.
Every brand should be global with the exception of Holden
Cadillac: global sport luxury to beat bmw
Buick / Opel: Upmarket/premium/soft lexus killer global brand. Buick and Opel vehicles would be exactly the same, just of course the vehicles would be Buick in the U.S and China and called Opel in the rest of the world and distinctive styling based on region. To achieve this, GM must allow Opel to move upmarket and let Chevy become the mainstream brand in Europe, this will be a painful and difficult process, but ultimately, be beneficial to GM long term.
Chevy: Global mainstream/volume/value brand, same names and styling-Worldwide
Holden: Keep its cars, development and everything else in Australia, basically, leave the the Australians to their own devices, the moment it starts being unprofitable, get rid of it.
but then it’s better than sticking to sell old excelles, rendezvous, and prev gen of the LaCrosse. So definitely Buick (especially in Taiwan) needs to update it.
Well, the Excelle is the best-selling Buick in the world… even though it’s an old Daewoo with Buick “cues”. For some reason, the Chinese love themselves the Excelle as well 🙂
But there’s no way they’re still selling the last-gen LaX or Rendezvous there… manufacturing for those ceased years ago, so unless they’re selling left-over inventory, there’s no way those are currently on the market…
The Buick website in Taiwan is still promoting those the last time i saw which isn’t long ago
Hi Vic, which Opel cars are currently available in Taiwan? Are there are lot of them on taiwanese roads?
Well the thing is that over there is pretty much dominated by the J3. But there are a few people who bought the D3’s. The Opel products that they have there are the Astra, Insignia, Zafira, Corsa, and then you have the OPC models.
Interesting. You sure it’s not a dealer website? Have a link?
Lol Alex if I show you the link you wouldn’t be able to understand.
LOL , Google Translate might work.
Well for those who are interested you can google Buick Taiwan, Opel Taiwan, or Cadillac Taiwan
So I found this:
http://www.yulon-gm.com.tw/opel/index.asp
It seems to be, from what I can deduce anyway, that this is a dealer site… as evidenced by “Yulon” before the brand. So it would appear that the dealer hasn’t updated their website to reflect the latest product portfolio…
But then Yulon is kinda like a distributor for both china and Taiwan and I think they developed their own brand called luxgen I don’t think they’re a dealer
And what I meant by the old Excelles is the Suzuki forenza based excelle.
I invite anyone thinking a Chinese-built car is a good idea to search YouTube for something called a Brillance BS6.
Its because most likely 50-70% percent of the items youre using, your phone, your home, and alot of your parts of your car, regardress of the country in which its assembled are made in China. China is a maufacturing center, America is a consuming center. Go Figure. Everything around you is made in China.
Get Over It.
BTW, I think theirs a broad misconception over auto factories. Auto factories are essentially not factories, for the most part, nothing is being produced, for example, the plant in Michichan is not making anything, there just assembling parts of a car made around the world. So even cars built / made in America, are not really American as most of their parts are made elsewhere in the world, probably China. In our era of Globalization, it is virtually impossible to buy a product that is solely made in any individual country, and nearly impossible to buy something today, except in the textile industry, that doesnt have at least one tiny part thats made in China.
So ill say it again. Everythings made in China. Get Over It.
Yes, and many things break in 5 years. Is that an acceptable level of quality to you?
I’d imagine that to be based more on the quality of 1) engineering and 2) components, rather than on the assembly itself…
GM took over Daewoo in order to use its car production facilities as an export base. However, the importance of Korea(Daewoo) seems to be fading fast as China began to substitute the Korea’ role. GM’s Bob Lutz once admitted that producing cars in Korea is “expensive”. Well, as it has come so it will go…