Major Kia parts en route to West Point

The first load of some 3,500 tons of heavy-duty car-making gear reached the Kia Motors plant under construction in West Point Tuesday.

Two giant metal-stamping presses and other equipment arrived at Savannah Port last week, and will be trucked cross-state to West Point. They’ll be installed at the Korean automaker’s first US plant, due to open in early 2009.

“This is a great example of how Georgia’s strengths enable our successes in economic development,” Gov. Sonny Perdue said is a statement released Monday.

“From our ports to our highways to QuickStart’s work force training, Georgia has all the advantages that global companies look for in a place to create new jobs and new investment,” Perdue said.

128 separate tractor-trailer loads will ferry the gear 300 miles cross-state to the factory site, officials said.

Kia’s $1.2 billion plant is expected to employ some 2,500 workers, and is considered an economic powerhouse for west Georgia.

“The arrival of these presses inside the state of Georgia is another huge step for Kia as we get closer to going into production in West Point,” said Randy Jackson, Kia’s director of human resources and administration.

Secondary and tertiary suppliers are gradually moving into the area, and are expected to boost overall employment figures to some 6,000 jobs for the assembly line and related industries.

“It takes quite an effort between Kia and various state agencies to coordinate the transport of such a large shipment, but Georgia’s ability to facilitate such an effort is one of the main reasons we’re here,” Jackson said in a statement.

Company officials tout that the assembly line will be able to produce 300,000 vehicles annually.

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the Kia plant.

Kia supplier opening Columbus factory

A Korean automotive parts firm is set to open it's first U.S. plant in Columbus, by year's end.

Illustration of Dongnam Tech auto carpet products. (Courtesy)

DongNam Tech, will open a 100,000 sq.-ft., 26-acre factory in Jan., 2009 that will make carpet and floor mats for several car makers including General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, and Nissan.

The $29 million plant, to be built in the Muscogee Technology Park will create 350 jobs, according to a Governor's Office statement.

The plant is one of many suppliers that have opened facilities in western Georgia, to service the Kia Motors assembly line, presently under construction near West Point. The $1.2 billion plant is scheduled to open in early to mid 2009.

Construction cranes at Kia plant lifting girders into place, June, 2008. (Dave Bender)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the Kia factory, and its local and statewide impact.

Kia: mixed signals over car plant plans

Artists rendering of completed Kia automaking plant. (Courtesy/Dave Bender)

Local Kia officials on Wednesday denied a rumored change in car production plans for it's west Georgia plant, set to open in 2009.

Senior Hyundai officials in Korea were quoted on Tuesday as saying that the plant would retool to produce a small car, instead of a planned SUV model due to fast-rising gas prices, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But Richard Park, media-relations chief for Kia's Georgia operation confirmed that -- locally, at least -- they're still on track to build the larger vehicle:

“Right now, we're not giving any, any information from headquarters, officially. So, in my understanding, our original schedule will be ongoing. That's the only thing that I can confirm officially.”

As well, Randy Jackson, Kia's director of human resources and administration amplified Park's words in a statement released Wednesday:

“At this point, the next generation Sorento is the only vehicle that I can confirm we will be producing in West Point."

It's as yet unclear what impact, if any, a move to a smaller vehicle would have on the planned $1.2 billion West Point plant.

Officials say the plant will employ 2,500 people, and produce upwards of 300,000 vehicles annually.

Tractor clearing brush for new entrance road to Kia plant from I-85. (file photo/Dave Bender)

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the facility and its economic effects on the area.

KIA drops pickup truck from new plant

KIA Motor Company's parent company Hyundai has called off plans to build pickup trucks at the west Georgia factory now under construction.

Planning map of the now-under-construction Kia plant, at the West Point city hall. (Dave Bender)

Hyundai had reportedly planned to build a mid-sized truck at the KIA factory in West Point, which is set to open in 2009, according to an article in Automotive News:

"Hyundai CEO Kim Dong-Jin said the company's board in 'a recent decision' scrapped plans for a unibody pickup in the United States. Kim said the original plan was to build a mid-sized truck for Kia and Hyundai at Kia’s new plant in West Point, Ga."

“But we are forced to give up production of the pickup at the North America plant,” Dong-Jin said, according to the article.

Hyundai cited soaring gas prices, and a sluggish housing market.

Still, Kia officials say construction is continuing, and they're still training workers. They're also still discussing what models they'll produce, according to KIA Human Resources Director
Randy Jackson:

"Earlier we released that we'd be manufacturing the SUV as the first model, and then we have said our second model -- we're still under discussion to determine what that'll be, and we have not reached a conclusion on that announcement yet."

The plant will eventually assemble 300,000 vehicles a year.

Sign of the times on a West Point resident's lawn, supporting the Kia plant. (Dave Bender)

Click here for more GPB coverage of the KIA facility.

New Kia Supplier Opening Shop

Backhoe removing foliage for entrance road off I-85 to Kia plant at West Point. (file photo/Dave Bender)

The State of Georgia has inked a deal with a Korean company, that will manufacture parts for a Kia auto plant being built at West Point.

The Governor's Office says the Sewon Precision company will create 700 jobs and invest $170 million dollars in the LaGrange facility. It'll be built over the next three years at a site not far from the Kia production facility being built in West Point.

The Sewon plant will make chassis and body parts for Kia SUVs. Georgia and Korean officials signed the deal on Wednesday, and the plant will be the company's first facility in the United States.

Governor Sonny Perdue met with a range of Korean officials in October, Sewon among them, in a bid to sign as many local Kia suppliers as possible. Kia's West Point auto plant is scheduled to open in 2009, and the company is opening an internet site for job-seekers at http://www.kiajobsingeorgia.com.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the Kia facility.

Officials: Kia car plant roaring ahead

West Point pinning hopes on Kia plant from Dave Bender on Vimeo.

Kia Motors and West Point city officials say the billion-dollar auto plant, set to open in 2009, is going ahead, on-schedule.

Construction workers have already cleared a 600-acre area, tabletop flat, just north of the city, where the 2-million square-foot plant is to be constructed.

Leveling the site and preparing infrastructure.
(Dave Bender)

City manager Ed Moon discounted a recent newspaper report doubting Kia's commitment, adding that the company's human resources chief says their plans are unchanged:

“They assured us in that meeting that everything is on-track. The plant will be finished by the fall of 2009 – they'll start mass-production then. There are no issues as far as the company being able to build here.”

Local residents told GPB News that they welcomed the influx, and its economic boom. Several dozen KIA officials have moved into the vicinity in the last six months, and a bustling Korean restaurant has opened in the town.

Sign welcoming Kia outside a home in West Point.
(Dave Bender)

Click here for more GPB News reports about the Kia plant and its effect on the area.