Kia Motors achieves new export milestone

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NEW MILESTONE: Kia Motors reaches the 10 millionth vehicle export mark with a Snow White Pearl Optima sedan shipped to the US market from Kia’s main shipping hub.

KUCHING: Kia Motors Corporation (Kia Motors) reached the 10 millionth vehicle export mark recently when a Snow White Pearl Optima sedan was shipped to the US market from Kia’s main shipping hub, Pyeongtaek Port, located 80 kilometres southwest of Seoul.

According to a press statement, Kia Motors has made a rapid, increasingly significant imprint of the global automotive industry, particularly in recent years with the introduction of a new generation of models including Picanto, Rio, Sorento, Sportage and Optima.

Following the company’s cumulative five millionth export in March 2005 which took 30 years to achieve, Kia Motors was able to reach the next five million exports figure in just six years.

To commemorate this milestone event, a celebration ceremony was held at Pyeongtaek Port which was attended by some 400 guests including Kia Motors vice chairman and chief executive officer Hyoung-Keun Lee, local government officials and numerous foreign dignitaries stationed in Korea.

Speaking at the ceremony, Lee said, “Today’s accomplishment would not have been possible without our loyal customers and hard working Kia employees around the world. Kia Motors vows to dedicate ourselves to the sustainable development of the global economy and the local communities in which we serve.”

“In line with the rapid progress Kia has made in the global automotive industry, its worldwide footprint has also grown dramatically, with the number of countries in which Kia cars are sold increasing from 10 in the 1980’s to 156 countries today,” he added.

Since its first export in 1975, cumulative exports units have grown to 4.27 million in North America, 2.45 million in Europe and 0.88 million in the Asia and Pacific markets. Kia Motors made the biggest strides in the North American market where global makers were engaged in heated competition.

By model, the A-segment Picanto was Kia’s most popular export model, with 764,453 cumulative units shipped, followed by the B-segment Rio and Sorento CUV, with 747,554 units and 656,446 units shipped, respectively.

“Although Kia’s exports have been historically dominated by small vehicles, recently introduced models strategically targeted at overseas markets, such as the Sportage and Sorento SUVs and Cadenza flagship sedan, have been well received in many different regions,” said Lee.

“This trend has allowed Kia Motors to move away from its small vehicle-concentrated export situation, with the average price of Kia export models increasing significantly from US$1,400 in 1975 to US$12,000 in 2010,” he added.

“Meanwhile, revenues derived from exports rose dramatically from US$0.1 billion in 1987 to US$0.5 billion in 2003, US$1 billion in 2005 and US$11.2 billion in 2010. Last year’s export revenue of US$11.2 billion represents 2.4 per cent of all South Korean exports, which underlines the significant role of Kia Motors as a pillar of the domestic Korean economy,” he revealed.

The increase in exports had also enabled Kia to surpass the two million unit global sales mark in 2010 for the first time in company history and attain global market share of three per cent.

Since 2004, Kia had posted an average annual global sales growth rate of 12 per cent, far outpacing the industry average of 1.9 per cent over the same period and cementing Kia’s standing as one of the world’s fastest growing automotive brands. Kia Motors planned to continue to expand its presence in the global automotive industry through various strategies aimed at improving brand value, profitability and growth sustainability.