Kia has hit the half million export cars mark in 12 months for the first time with an Optima that left South Korea for the USA on 17 December as its 500,000th export in 2003.
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The 2004 Optima rolled onto a container ship at Kia’s Pyongtaek facility as part of a shipment of 2,000 vehicles bound for Jacksonville and Baltimore in the USA. It is the first time in Kia’s history that annual shipments of built-up vehicles have exceeded the half million mark.
2002 saw exports reach 449,824 built up units and the target for 2003 is 537,029, generating revenues of US$6 billion.
In 2004, Kia expects to ship 680,000 built-up cars generating revenues of more than US$7 billion. By 2006 the company expects to pass the one million mark in export shipments with revenues exceeding US$11 billion.
Kia Motors maintains two shipping facilities, one at Pyongtaek on the east cost of the Korean peninsula, the other at Kunsan a little further south.
The two facilities load up to 4,500 cars daily onto a fleet of roll-on roll-off transport ships operated by Eucor, delivering Kia vehicles around the world.
In addition to built up vehicles, Kia Motors also has a busy knockdown (CKD) programme that, in 2003, will ship 190,000 kits to overseas assembly plants.
