Automotive parts producer Hyundai Mobis has come a step closer to completing a 966 million euro investment in a new manufacturing facility in the Czech Republic.
The Seoul, South Korea-based components maker has reached a detailed agreement with the city of Ostrava to acquire a €2.54m plot of land in the Mošnov industrial zone within the Moravia-Silesia region on which to construct its new 43,000-square-meter car headlight plant.
Hyundai Mobis was due to sign the deal before the end of October. It allows for the parts maker initially to pay for the site but will later get the money back from the Czech state as part of an investment incentive scheme, according to Czech media reports.
The component producer will pay for the land in three separate installments between 2015 and 2017 with 10 percent due by the end of this year, a further 40 percent of the sum in 2016 and the rest in 2017, Ostrava's Mayor Tomáš Macura was quoted as stating.
Hyundai Mobis signed an initial investment agreement on the plant project with the Czech Government in July 2014 to spend a total of 966 million euros on the facility. The plant was set to be built on a 180,000 square meter site and have a capacity of 750,000 lamp sets per year.
It is due to supply lights for all strategic vehicle models manufactured by the Hyundai Motors Czech factory in Nosovice and Kia Motors assembly plant in Slovakia.
Last year, Hyundai Mobis explained that it aims to provide stable supply of parts to complete car manufacturing plants outside Korea to reduce logistics costs, shorten supply time and resolve exchange rate risks, with its core parts production increasingly in Europe.
At its plant in Nosovice, the company produces three core modules: the chassis module, driver's seat module and front end module, used by the European car models of Hyundai and KIA Motors at two factories in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.