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Renault Samsung mulls sale of factory land

Dec. 6, 2012 - 20:25 By Kim Yon-se
Renault Samsung Motors is considering selling some of the land at its second manufacturing plant site in Busan, company officials said Thursday.

The land sale plan allegedly comes as part of the carmaker’s efforts to overcome a lackluster sales performance.

Though Renault Samsung had pushed ahead with building the second plant, it has yet to launch the construction process amid the situation that its sales in the local market dropped more than 30 percent on a year-on-year basis.

A company executive confirmed the possibility that Renault Samsung will secure operating funds by selling off some part of the land. But he added that it is not easy to get endorsement from authorities.

Renault Samsung executives are pinning hopes on the coming Nissan models of the Renault-Nissan Alliance to revitalize the automaker’s competitiveness against Korean brands, particularly Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors.

Renault-Nissan Alliance, which rolls out more than one in 10 cars worldwide, will also benefit from the group’s business policy involving the Busan plant.

A task for the global auto alliance is to expand its annual production capacity. The supply shortage of Renault-Nissan vehicles in some countries has hampered its global market share.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)