Hyundai Motor chief visits US plants to stress `quality mgmt.`

“We must maintain our global competitiveness through quality innovation.”

This is what Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Mong-koo said when visiting his carmaker`s factory in Alabama Tuesday and Kia Motors’ plant in Georgia Wednesday.

“Hyundai and Kia have strived to produce cars with "quality stabilization," but from now on, we must focus on providing cars with "best quality,” he said, adding, “Going beyond the quality level that can satisfy our customers, we need to achieve quality that can impress them and satisfy their sensitivities. This is a task we should fulfill down the road.”

Chung’s U.S. visit was his first since August last year. He also visited Hyundai’s sales branch in Los Angeles.

The purpose of his visit was to emphasize the importance of quality management and encourage company workers and executives in the U.S., who have increased Hyundai`s market share to 10 percent in the U.S. in May for the first time since the carmaker`s U.S. debut in 1986, a Hyundai source said.

By stressing the need to pay more attention to quality enhancement, Chung urged company executives to devote themselves to securing stable production facilities, supply quality parts at an appropriate time, and stabilize the workplace to create the best working conditions.

When he visited the Alabama factory, Chung is known to have placed emphasis on smooth progress in the remodeling work for an engine production facility, in which the company invested 173 U.S. million dollars.

At Kia’s Georgia factory, Chung was briefed on a facility expansion project worth 100 million dollars aimed at increasing production capacity 20 percent from 300,000 units a year to 360,000 by next year and mass producing the K5, or Optima, from September.

Based on the project, Hyundai plans to sell 1.07 million cars in the U.S., up 18.2 percent from last year and 4 percent more than the 1.01 million units planned early this year. The company’s global production is forecast to reach 6.5 million units, up from the initial projection of 6.3 million units.

Chairman Chung met Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley Wednesday morning and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal in the evening to express his gratitude for the two states` cooperation and urge their continuous support.

After hearing that Bentley, who was elected Alabama governor in November last year, had never been to Korea, Chung told him, “After recovering from your recent tornados, I hope you can visit Korea.” To this, Governor Bentley said he wants to visit Korea.

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