Automaker KIA Motors is using 27,000 mt of steel to build its $1 billion auto plant in the city of Pesqueria, in the state of Nuevo Leon, in Mexico.
KIA Motors said its 300,000-autos/year plant is 92 percent complete, despite delays in the building of the plant, which lasted about 13 months, the company said. As the plant is almost complete, the company will perform quality tests, which are expected to take approximately seven months.
Media reports said KIA should start-up the plant by the end of H1 or the beginning of H2, producing the KIA Forte model and increasing the company’s global capacity by 10 percent.
From the plant’s total output, 60 percent will be destined to North America, while 20 percent will be exported to South America and the remaining 20 percent should be supplied to the Mexican domestic market.
KIA is said to have directly hired 4,000 employees. In the long term the company is expected to promote about 14,000 direct jobs and 56,000 indirect jobs.
Considering the investments made by KIA’s eleven suppliers, the auto plant received investments of about $2.5 billion, including manufacturing facilities that will occupy 350 hectares of land near the 270-hectare KIA plant, according to media reports.