Kia Motors will invest 8.1bn crowns ($US308.8m) into a new production unit to raise engine output capacity at its Slovak car factory, the Slovak economy ministry said on Wednesday.
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Reuters noted that the car maker said last week the new facility would raise potential engine production at the Zilina plant to 600,000 units a year from the currently planned 300,000.
“It’s an additional investment for the engine factory. It will create an additional 400 jobs,” ministry spokesman Branislav Zvara was reported as saying though a Kia Motors spokesman in Slovakia declined to confirm the ministry’s statement.
Reuters noted that the extra output should boost Slovakia’s exports as the new plant will supply a Hyundai car assembly plant to be built in the neighbouring Czech Republic. Kia has said construction should start in the first or the second quarter of 2007 and the facility should come onstream by end-2008.
Kia recently began production at the new car plant in Slovakia.
