. 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.