Officially there are no plans to shift any South Korean General Motors production to Europe but unofficially it ‘could’ happen.
The new president and CEO of GM Korea, Sergio Rocha, said the automaker had no plans to shift production.
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South Korea’s traditionally militant trade unions have threatened “war” with GM if it shifts output of Chevrolets from Korea, Reuters noted.
“Are we looking at (it)? We always do. But do we have anything? No,” Rocha told the news agency on the sidelines of the Busan International Motor Show in South Korea on Thursday.
Earlier this month, GM said it would build the next generation of its Astra compact at factories in Britain and Poland, leaving its plant in Bochum, Germany in danger of closing.
GM CEO Dan Akerson floated the idea in December that more cost-cutting at Opel could be accompanied by shifting production from Asia to make European plants more efficient. German unions jumped on that idea, suggesting Chevrolet production from Korea could be moved to Germany.
Most of GM’s Chevrolet cars sold in Europe are produced in South Korea. A few are also imported from the US.
A source subsequently told Reuters some production of Chevrolet vehicles could be shifted from South Korea to Europe with the Opel plant in Ruesselsheim, Germany, the likely beneficiary. Ruesselsheim is losing Astra production with the change to the next generation and GM could transfer the Zafira from Bochum to plug the gap leaving Bochum nothing to build.
GM has repeatedly said a decision on plant closings in Europe was not imminent and ruled out closing any sites until the end of 2014, when its current labour deal with the German union IG Metall expires.
Opel/Vauxhall chief Opel chief Karl-Friedrich Stracke earlier this week declined to give a workers meeting at Bochum assurances of the plant’s future beyond 2014 though the Astra announcement effectively gives the British and Polish plants assurances into the 2020s.
GM also said on Thursday it would expand its design centre in Incheon, Korea, doubling its size to include new modelling studios, display spaces and areas for creative work. The company did not disclose how much it would invest for the expansion.
