. Visteon to Expand Manufacturing Operations
in Slovakia with Focused Factory for Kia
KERPEN, Germany - Visteon
Corporation announced today that it will expand its manufacturing
footprint in Eastern Europe by building a focused factory in Dubnica,
Slovak Republic, dedicated to supporting Kia.
Visteon's just-in-time
focused factory will deliver climate control components to Kia for
future vehicle models produced for the European market. Start of
production is planned for December 2006. Kia is the second customer
that Visteon will supply out of Slovakia.
Visteon and its Korean
affiliate Halla Climate Control (HCC) have been awarded substantial
climate control business for Kia's European operations, including
the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning module (HVAC), powertrain
cooling module, compressor, air-conditioning hoses and temperature
controls. Visteon will be Kia's main systems integrator for the
climate control system. Visteon's new Dubnica focused factory will
be a hub for the supply of all Visteon climate control content to
Kia in Slovakia, with components being manufactured across Visteon's
worldwide facilities, including Slovakia, Czech Republic and Korea.
"This new business
award for Kia Motors is testimony of Visteon's growing relationship
with Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, Visteon's second largest customer
worldwide," said Dr. Mathias Huettenrauch, Visteon's director for
the Asian customer business unit in Europe. "Visteon's global product
development, engineering and manufacturing capabilities, as well
as its ability to deliver products just-in-time and on a global
scale positions Visteon as an important partner to Asian Hyundai-Kia
Automotive Group. Visteon is ideally positioned to service Hyundai-Kia
not only in Asia, but also in North America and Europe, where the
car manufacturer is increasing its market share."
Visteon's focused factory in
Dubnica will be laid out for a capacity of 300,000 vehicle units at full
production by 2010 and can be expanded to higher production volumes. The
building will cover 3,800 square meters on 12,000 square meters of land.
"The Dubnica facility will
exclusively focus on supplying the Kia program," said Dr. Karl Krause, vice
president of Visteon's European and South American manufacturing operations.
"We are tailoring our manufacturing, quality and supply-chain processes
around the individual requirements of our OEM customers. Our customer focus
is the reason we call our just-in-time plants focused factories."
Earlier this year, Visteon
announced plans for a manufacturing facility in Nitra, Slovakia. That facility
is also underway. Visteon's Nitra plant is designed to become an important
base for the production of plastics components for interior and climate
control products to supply car manufacturers located in Eastern Europe.
In Nitra, Visteon will also manufacture interior components as a supplier
to PSA Peugeot-Citroen.
