GM Korea says it won’t shift production to Europe

BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA, May 24: US carmaker General Motors has no plans to shift production from its factories in South Korea to Europe, where it recently announced a restructuring at its Opel subsidiary, transferring output from Germany to the UK.
South Korea’s traditionally militant trade unions have threatened ‘war’ with GM if it shifts output of the Chevrolet model from Korea.
‘Are we looking at (it)? We always do. But do we have anything? No,’ Sergio Rocha, president and CEO of GM Korea, told reporters on the sidelines of the Busan International Motor Show in South Korea on Thursday.
Earlier this month, GM announced that it would build the next generation of its Astra compact at a factory in Britain, leaving its plant in Bochum, Germany in danger of closure.
Before that announcement, there had been speculation that GM could shift some Chevrolet output from South Korea to Opel in Europe in a bid to salvage its loss-making operations there.
Most of GM’s Chevrolet cars sold in Europe are produced in South Korea.
(AGENCIES)