Hyundai cars at a dealership in Los Angeles on September 27, 2010. The
car maker has opened a 10,000-a-year vehicle capacity assembly plant in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. PHOTO | AFP
South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co opened a 10,000-a-year vehicle
capacity assembly plant in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on
Thursday, its first factory in East Africa.
While
second-hand vehicles dominate sales in the Horn of Africa country,
Hyundai hopes locally-assembled cars could prove attractive given the
cost of imports due to high taxes.
Vehicles that will
roll off the assembly line at the plant just outside of the capital
include passenger hatchback cars and trucks, Haile Gebrselassie, the
former Olympian-turned businessman who has partnered with the South
Korean firm.
Some of the cars will be exported to the region, Haile said.
“This plant is big enough (to assemble) for Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Sudan,” he said.
Ethiopia
produces around 10,000 commercial and other vehicles a year for its
home market. It imported more than 40,000 cars in 2017, automobile
traders say.
Assemblers in the country include Chinese brands Geely, FAW and BYD, as well as Lifan.
Hyundai
Chief Executive Won Hee Lee said the Korean firm was drawn by
Ethiopia’s growth, one of Africa’s fastest for more than a decade.
“We
have good opportunities in Ethiopia. We believe the economic growth in
Ethiopia will be faster than any other country in middle Africa,” he
told reporters at the inauguration ceremony.
No comments:
Post a Comment