GM Korea has just announced that it will sell all of its service centers and several idle assets at one of its plants as part of a plan to streamline its operations in the Asian country.
The automaker will sell all nine service centers it operates in South Korea and has begun talks to sell “inactive assets” at the Bupyeong industrial complex in Incheon, which includes both GM Korea headquarters and its R&D Center, as well as two vehicle production plants. The company confirms its plans to further reduce its local presence, fueling rumors of its withdrawal from Korea.
GM Bupyeong complex in South Korea
“GM Korea plans to sequentially sell its nine company-owned service centers across the country while continuing to provide customer support through its network of 386 authorized partner service centers,” said GM Korea Communications Department in a statement. “GM is in discussions with various stakeholders regarding the potential sale of idle assets and low-utilization facilities and land at its Bupyeong plant,” the company added.
Although it clarified that it will maintain employment, the announcement shows that GM Korea plans to reduce its operations in the South Korean market and reverse the investment it recently made in opening corporate service centers for Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC, which are not yielding results. Furthermore, the sale of idle assets from the Bupyeong plant includes machinery, facilities, and land from the complex’s second vehicle factory, which has been closed since 2022.
GM Korea currently manufactures the Chevy Trailblazer, Buick Encore GX and Chevy Trax for all markets at its main plant in Bupyeong, while its GM Changwon plant exclusively produces the Trax and Buick Envista for export to North America. The Trump administration’s tariff policy complicates the company’s business case in South Korea and increases uncertainty about the company’s future in the country.
For now, the move to sell service centers and part of the inoperative assets of GM Korea’s largest industrial complex seeks to “rationalize” operations in light of the current business landscape, but the production plan remains unchanged at least in the medium term. The company is obligated to continue manufacturing in Korea until at least the end of 2027, according to the agreement it signed with the South Korean government during its 2018 restructuring.
“Maximizing the value of idle assets and rationalizing the operations of loss-making service centers are critical to maintaining the company’s long-term sustainability,” said GM Korea CEO, Hector Villarreal. “Our current vehicle production programs still have several years ahead, and this measure is important to securing business efficiency moving forward,” he finished.
Comments
Stupid.
Your selling Ch1nese made cars in Mexico and loosing money in Chin@, cut of that country, ramp up Korean production and send these to Africa and South America. Do these bean counters not understand investment???? Not understand risk and reward? All they understand is “were only making 5% profit, so slash!!!” You need to invest and build.
Totally Agree!
If it made financial sense, it wouldn’t be in GMs character to go with it. I’ve always said they are notorious for making financial decisions that just leaves me scratching my head in disbelief. Its like their strategic department is run by a bunch of clowns.
Surprise! GM does something STUPID AGAIN!
Talk about confusing.
The fact of the matter is, GM’s core market has always been North America. These international plants are unable to sell cars in the rest of the world, making their location unjustifiable.
You should remember that GM Daewoo(GM Korea) had great potential in the 2000s. They even recorded over 180,000 domestic sales in 2016! GM Korea’s recent restructuring is nonsense.
And the Koreans assembly is top quality.
If GM put dedication to their products and the needs of the customers all over the globe not just in two markets, they would be more than capable of doing it. Its all they need to reach Toyotas, Hyundais, and VWs level of international success. I meam come on. SAIC has turned MG into an international success. MG! And it simply needed to be a product that speaks to the needs of the customers.
But as usual, they focus all on China, North America as second thought, and everyone else is for granted. They have stellar products selling in China, like the new XT5, their many striking Buicks, but nobody else gets them. So why are they fretting then? Its simple. If you don’t have what customers are looking for they will look elsewhere. And I said this many times. Once they go Japanese or Korean, they rarely ever come back. Unless they land up with bad luck like me where I had to shell out $6k on a new transmission on my Toyota.
generally moldering
Despite the successful providing of compact SUVs to North America, GM Korea’s fanatical indifference to future product is the most representative example of Barra’s selfishness. She should learn from Rick Wagoner. And more, Eliminating all direct AS centers in Korea? it is an unprecedented madness among Korean automakers. I even suspect that GM HQ wants to delete every “Daewoo” legacy forever. Nick Reilly will be angry of this!
GM’s leadership’s answer to any and all market challenges: when in doubt, pull out.
Unless its China. Then its when in doubt, pull out elsewhere and relocate them here.
gm just gets smaller and smaller. Losing more and more money.
GM’s entire sub-35k product lineup is based around Korean built models, and now they are going to shut down Korea?
Either they are going to need a big product shift or they are going to end up like Ford and Stellantis that basically just don’t have any entry level vehicles. Not sure how well a company can survive when they push all the young customers to brands like Kia and Hyundai. Not everyone wants trucks that cost a fortune.
If you choose to price yourself out of the lucrative young buyers market, that is a gamble you are making and no one should feel bad for you. The thing is, car buyers tend to be loyal so common sense would tell you to nab them while they’re young and retain them from your volume brands through your luxury brands. But common sense seems to be an alien concept to GM, Ford, and dont get me started on Stellantis.
These cars can very much have been built in the US much like they did with the Cruze and much like Honda is building the Accord. Stellantis has plenty of appealing compact cars they sell in Europe under the Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, DS, and even FIAT name. They don’t have to sell the exact car but they have plenty of platforms to play with.
But since they decided to focus more on Wagoneers and high end Grand Cherokees they basically priced themselves out of the interests of young buyers. And the irony is, those rich buyers they decided to abandon the younger and more economical buyers for, are completely ignoring them. Much like GM abandoned their other markets for the Chinese consumer which is now increasingly ignoring them. Astonishing. Seems like any idiot can run the strategic planning department in these companies.
It figures … I took delivery on a new ’25 Trax about three weeks ago, and what does GM do make gestures they are leaving my car’s country of origin. I left Ford after driving Fords for close to 30 years due to poor quality, and poor dealer support. GM an Ford are making it a lot easier to take a serious look at another brand like Hyundai. My wife is hoping that as am that the Chevrolet Montana 4 door pickup sold in South America would be stateside by 2026, now it seems that in 2027 the Trax too maybe another nameplate like the Lumina an Astro that were among the best sellers that are gone to history. GM, Ford … people/customers have had enough of buying vehicles that you discontinue and then the customer loses even more trade-in value. Maybe it’s time, time to take a page from Lee Iacocca’s legacy … tell the UAW the time for always bleeding GM dry with things like “job classification” and “20 an out benefits” along with salaries that are close to $50 an up per hours has to come to a close … or there’ll be no more GM to work at. Iacocca did just this in the early 80’s, and won concessions from the UAW.
Talk about much you do about nothing! Getting rid of assets with liabilities. Why operate your own if you can outsource it in somebody else takes on the liability? Underutilized cut it so you’re not paying taxes maintenance and upkeep. I fell to see how any of this is a major indication at this point!
First, the big three abandoned sedans for expensive crossovers. Now they’re abandoning the entry level market. If this keeps up, only wealthy customers will be able to afford a new car.
Trax is made ONLY in Changwon plant. Bupyeong Plant 1 only makes the TrailBlazer, Envista and Encore GX. Just for correction.
In any case, as someone said previously, GM is melting like and ice cube.
How can they even think on slashing something that is producing close to half a million vehicles, selling them like pan cakes, and perhaps not making too much money on each, but making money?
All of the above comments The Sky is Falling. Cover your heads. The realignment of World Trade has begun.
They should fire Barra. She is running GM into the ground. Wants electric vehicles. What an idiot.