[BahamaTodd]

Yonhap News Agency

SEOUL, June 22 (Yonhap) -- Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's top automaker, plans to start building its second plant in the United States this year, a company source said Monday, an apparent move to meet growing demand in the American market.

Hyundai Motor currently runs a plant in Alabama that opened in 2005. It has been seeking to open a second one with negotiations going on with a couple of states to determine a final location.

Alabama is among the candidate states where the second plant will be built, a Hyundai Motor official said.

"Negotiations are underway to select a site where the plant will be built and Alabama is one of the possible sites," he said on condition of anonymity. "We aim to pick a site and launch the construction of the plant within this year."

He did not specify the other candidate states, saying it could affect the ongoing talks.

Hyundai Motor has been working to build its second plant in the U.S. as it is struggling to meet the growing demand in the market with its current production capacity. Car sales in the U.S. are expected to spike to 17.5 million units in 2017 from 16.8 million units this year.

The automaker is also faced with a shortage of sport utility vehicle models available to local customers at a time when its recovering economy and low fuel prices are boosting demand for SUVs. Hyundai Motor's first plant produces passenger sedans only.

In May, Hyundai Motor saw its sales in the U.S. plunge 10.3 percent from a year earlier. This is compared to 1.6 percent growth in total auto sales there.

Market experts say that the envisioned second plant will produce mostly SUV models to keep up with the growing demand.

The official close to the matter confirmed that the second plant would have an annual production capacity of some 300,000 units but added that car models to be produced there will be determined "depending on market demand and conditions."

If construction starts within this year, he noted that the plant will be up and running from May 2017.

To be up and running by May 2017 - just in time for the 2018 model year.

 

[Santana]

Thanks for posting this up, it's going to be quite the wait but worth it once it all goes down, from now till then hopefully we see more details on the Santa Cruz.

 

[Colin]

But its unclear if this plant will actually be producing the Santa Cruz. Is it producing the Santa Cruz or the Tucson? Do we know?

 

[BahamaTodd]

This is all speculation until Hyundai puts out something official.

If the SC gets the official go-ahead, it would definitely be built in the US because of the chicken tax. That's also assuming that tax sticks around. There are rumors that the Tans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement could do away with the tax. If that happens, everything changes. Hyundai might also be waiting to see what comes of that.

 

[Santana]

This is all speculation until Hyundai puts out something official.

If the SC gets the official go-ahead, it would definitely be built in the US because of the chicken tax. That's also assuming that tax sticks around. There are rumors that the Tans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement could do away with the tax. If that happens, everything changes. Hyundai might also be waiting to see what comes of that.

I feel like we're almost getting to the point that we might eventually hear something from them, if not this quarter than sometime during the last quarter of this year.

 

[Colin]

I feel like we're almost getting to the point that we might eventually hear something from them, if not this quarter than sometime during the last quarter of this year.

Really that means that you think that we will see something in the next 6 months? Time is relative, so in some ways that is close, but in other ways that could still be a fairly long wait.

 

[BahamaTodd]

We should hear something pretty soon. The Hyundai US CEO commented in mid May that they expect to make an announcement within 60-90 days. We enter that time frame next week.

Hyundai U.S. Chief: NA Capacity Announcement in 60-90 Days | Plants & Production content from WardsAuto

Hyundai Motor America CEO Dave Zuchowski expects the automaker to soon announce additional capacity for North America.

“I think probably within the next 60-90 days there’ll be an announcement,” Zuchowski tells WardsAuto on the sidelines of a ’16 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid media event here.

 

[Santana]

We should hear something pretty soon. The Hyundai US CEO commented in mid May that they expect to make an announcement within 60-90 days. We enter that time frame next week.

Hyundai U.S. Chief: NA Capacity Announcement in 60-90 Days | Plants & Production content from WardsAuto

Thanks for pulling up that information.

 

[Dex]

This is all speculation until Hyundai puts out something official.

If the SC gets the official go-ahead, it would definitely be built in the US because of the chicken tax. That's also assuming that tax sticks around. There are rumors that the Tans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement could do away with the tax. If that happens, everything changes. Hyundai might also be waiting to see what comes of that.

theres also been a ton of chatter recently that the chicken tax may get the axe.



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[Santana]

One of the reasons to love the TPP act, but overall it seems the nation will lose out or it just become harder for people to find jobs since they'll be outsourced somewhere cheaper.