Start of local assembly of Hyundai cars set

The official importer and distributor of Hyundai cars in the country will start commercial assembly of completely knocked down (CKD) units this September, targeting 5,000 units by yearend, a top official said.

Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (Hari) will have a pilot assembly on May 14, before beginning full CKD operations in June, according to Hari President Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo.

On the sidelines of the Manila International Auto Show, she told reporters that the assembly would only involve one car model, which she declined to identify.

This develops as the Board of Investments (BOI) required the company to put up more assembly processes in order to lift the suspension order against it.

It was also required to refund the tax and duty deferential from its imports, the amount of which would be determined by Bureau of Customs (BoC).

Hyundai was suspended from a BOI program after the company allegedly misrepresented some of its imports to avoid paying higher taxes.

The company president, meanwhile, said the assembly this year would only involve one model, after which production is expected to increase.

“We need to have a pilot assembly on May 14. We will run the full CKD operations by June 1 and then commercial production by September,” she said.

“By the end of the year, just for the last quarter alone, we’re looking at 3,000 to 5,000 units. That’s one [model] only,” she said.

It is not clear how this decision to assemble one model unit will affect BOI’s order, which required the assembly of the two models that Hyundai was said to have misrepresented, not just one.