General Motors celebrates 20 years of operations in South Korea, where it has established itself as the largest foreign direct investment company and is substantially increasing its production capacity at its two local plants.
The automaker kicked off celebrating its 20th anniversary in South Korea on October 19th with a special ceremony at the GM Changwon plant, which has just received a major investment to build next-generation global vehicles. In fact, GM used the occasion to present the Changwon plant’s state-of-the-art facilities and the strategies with which it expects its Korean business to grow from 2023.
Roberto Rempel
“As the largest foreign investor, GM has been part of the Korean economy’s advancement for the last 20 years, creating jobs, producing, selling and exporting vehicles, and designing and engineering global vehicles,” said President and CEO of GM Korea, Roberto Rempel, in a statement. “We are proud to contribute to the development of ecosystem in the Korean automotive industry partnering with the part suppliers who were also able to grow their businesses in this journey,” he added.
GM Changwon plant
In addition to celebrating its first 20 years of operations, GM Korea is completing a massive investment of 1,100,000,000,000 KRW – about 768.3 million USD at current exchange rates – to increase production capacity in the Asian country to 500,000 units per year. Of that total, GM invested KRW 900 billion in the Changwon plant and KRW 200 billion in the GM Bupyeong plant – which it renovated in 2019 to build the Chevy Trailblazer and Buick Encore GX.
As such, the Changwon plant now has state-of-the-art facilities and equipment, ensuring greater flexibility and production efficiency. Following the latest investment, the complex is capable of manufacturing 60 units per hour from compact to full-size models. Although GM has yet to officially reveal it, the Changwon plant is expected to build the all-new Chevy Trax starting in the first quarter of next year.
Since its establishment in October 2002, GM Korea has invested more than 9 trillion KRW (about 6.3 billion USD) and produced about 26 million vehicles, including 12 million completed vehicles and more than 14 million semi-assembled units. The vast majority have been exported to more than 140 countries. Between Chevrolet and Cadillac, the company has sold about 2.4 million vehicles in the domestic market of Korea.
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Comments
Yea, why there, and not here? 900 BILLION DOLLARS!!! WTF! When they build the full size trucks over there, I’ll buy an F150 over HERE!! SAD..
You understand that they sell things over there, too, right?
“Yea, why there, and not here? 900 BILLION DOLLARS!!! WTF! When they build the full size trucks over there, I’ll buy an F150 over HERE!! SAD..”
Is it $768 million, not Billions. If it was built in the USA, it would be $1.8 billion thereby, it would raise the price too high for the segment the TRAX is marketed for.
Everything has been great for GM for the past 20 years ,but now North Korea has Long Range missiles that can even hit the US ,and nuclear weapons the unstable Nut Bar north of the border could attack anytime wiping out 900 billion in past investments ,get real it could happen anytime he is totally unstable and hates the south !
Gary L. So, if we live every day worrying about nuclear nihilation nothing would be bought or sold. Read some history, in the 60s they say we were at our closest to nuclear war with the USSR, I doubt GM, Ford, Chrysler, American Motors the Germans, Japs, Italian, French, Brits and any other company who made cars to chocolate chip cookies stopped their production lines. Since then, more countries have acquired nukes and I doubt any company batted an eye or stopped investing. If you want to worry about something, you don’t have to look farther than 1600 Pennsylvania Ave or Delaware
or any ice cream parlor.
The U.S. has Four opponent Counties that can send inter continental missiles easily to strike the U.S – Russia ,North Korea ,Iran and China and we are close to war with at least two now about Taiwan and Ukraine so dream on if you think it can’t or won’t happen as the world goes into recession shortly !
Gary, ask yourself these questions why we are close to war. Who is in the White House. Who created the recession. It is the simple minded feckless Democrat idiot in the White House. Start building your bomb shelter Gary, there’s a person in Washington walking in circles looking to shake some one’s hand. He might slip on his ice cream cone and hit the button.
Well Trump buddies in north .Korea and Russia will support the GOP MAGA’s till your eyes bleed if he runs again and takes you into having a dictatorship under him like his communist dictator friends worldwide sadly ,remember the Pearl Harbor sneak attack that why the U.S. is currently standing up to Putler in Ukraine along with NATO against other dictators now ,not like limp wristed Mc.Carthy and his lot !
Trump sugar rushed our economy with tax cuts for the rich & borrowing. It was bound to implode. Additional tax cuts would have caused a UK Truss situation. No nation can continue like that.
We can’t blame Biden for the cuts running their course, Covid fall out, supply chain disruptions or Ukraine which has impacted oil prices but had to be protected. Any normal, non Trump Republican, would have done the same in Europe.
Putin, not Biden, tanked the global economy yet the US is still better positioned than Europe. Biden didn’t brake the bank, isn’t a “socialist” contrary to AM talk radio. Think for yourself instead of reciting FOX propaganda.
GM investing in Korean heavy industry is nothing but good. South Korea is under pressure from both the northern wacko and the Chinese. These plants give the Koreans the capability to produce more than just cars. They strengthen their economy with all those exports. A strong economy allows them to pay for their own defense infrastructure, so we don’t have to.
Great point! Also, Korean engineers have a lot of expertise to offer as GM focuses on World cars that will sell on every continent.
China is a dreadful country but the j/v has allowed GM to get new perspectives, like GEM, for building in the developing world. FIAT once ruled the Brazilian market but Chevrolet has gained market share selling Gems instead of old Opels.
Nothing good about GM closing US factories and building offshore. For example look at the mess they are in with computer chips. Build them here.
I remember when GM celebrated 50 years at their second largest assembly complex in America at Lordstown, then they closed it a years or so later.