Carmaker Hyundai Thanh Cong opens new $129 mln Vietnam factory

Hyundai Thanh Cong, a joint venture between Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor and Vietnamese firm Thanh Cong Group, launched its second manufacturing facility in Vietnam on Tuesday.

The new plant, which covers 50 hectares in Gian Khau Industrial Park, the northern province of Ninh Binh, has a designed capacity of 100,000 cars per year, raising the joint venture’s total annual capacity to 180,000 units.

An investment of more than VND3,200 billion ($129 million) has gone into the new facility, according to the joint venture.

Thanh Cong Group chairman Nguyen Anh Tuan said the factory was equipped with Korea’s latest technology to manufacture hi-quality, eco-friendly, and fuel-saving vehicles from high-precision assembly lines and a digital platform, toward becoming a smart factory.

Ninh Binh province Chairman Pham Quang Ngoc said both Hyundai Thanh Cong and Thanh Cong Group have so far invested in eight projects in his province worth around $512 million. He did not give specific figures from either side.

In 2011, Hyundai Thanh Cong opened its first Vietnam factory on a 100-hectare site in the same industrial park, to make just Hyundai cars. The facility started producing Hyundai buses and trucks in 2017. Before the new milestone, bus and truck production under the Hyundai brand had been carried out by several Vietnamese firms.