KIA to Invest US$408 Million in Nuevo Leon

Korean automaker KIA Motors announced a US$408 million investment to increase production capacity at its assembly plant in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The expansion will allow KIA to increase manufacture from 250,000 cars per year to 400,000 and create 800 new jobs. The company has already spent US$67 million of this amount in infrastructure improvements. 

KIA manufactures the Rio, Forte and Hyundai Accent in the plant in Pesqueria, Nuevo Leon, and exports up to 80 percent of production to over 45 countries around the world. The company started operations in the country in 2016 and since then, it has manufactured over 1.5 million units and invested more than US$3 billion in Mexico. 

“KIA is already one of the largest investors Mexico has had, they started with US$3 billion and today they are announcing an addition, an expansion for US$408 million that will bring more industrial units, more processes, other lines, other engines, other jobs in the very short term, by 2024,” said Samuel García, Governor of Nuevo Leon, according to El Economista 

Nuevo Leon offers numerous opportunities for transnational companies. “Everyone has Nuevo Leon on the map and on the radar, not only because of the nearshoring that is happening today, where many companies are relocating, looking for the American market and setting up in Nuevo Leon, but also because we are on the map, because we have transnational companies here that are expanding and growing, which means that they are very happy and comfortable with the state of Nuevo Leon,” said García during a visit to New York and Washington.

García also said that his administration has brought about one new investment every week and will announce two or three weekly investments in the following days. 

One of the state’s advantages is its highly qualified talent. “Something important that the president of KIA Mexico told us in the meeting we had is that he has already been in the US, in Asia, and that there is no place like Nuevo Leon. He is impressed with the staff. Right now there are around 2,400 people working in KIA but more than 10,000 with all its suppliers,” said Iván Rivas Rodríguez, Minister of Economy of Nuevo Leon.