South Korea automaker Kia Motors denied today, April 24, a media report that claims the company has plans to build a new plant in the U.S. by 2014 according to Reuters.
The original report indicated that a new plant would be built in 2014 to ease a capacity shortage that has "put a brake" on the company's sales growth in the U.S.
Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Kia Motors and Hyundai Motors, felt the need to comment on a report by South Korean newspaper Financial News that stated the company was in talks with Georgia state officials to create a new plant.
The new plant would have supposedly produced 150,000 vehicles in a year according to Financial News. The report stated that ground would be broken between this month and June at the earliest.
"The report is all groundless," a Kia Motors spokesman said according to Reuters.
The report also said that the decision was made back in 2010 to build the new production facilities in Georgia, but they held off on the plan due to "global economic uncertainty."
Hyundai and Kia were the only major car companies to increase sales in the U.S. during the 2009 global economic decline. The past few months have been a different story however, as both but have been dealing with declining sales largely due to rising competition from rivals like Toyota.
The combined U.S. sales of Hyundai and Kia fell 3 percent from January to March this year when compared to the same time period in 2012.
Kia already has one factory in Georgia which manufactures 360,000 vehicles. That plant produces vehicles like the Optima sedan, Sorento sport utility vehicle (SUV) and Hyundai's Santa Fe SUV.
Hyundai also has one U.S. factory in Alabama, which makes the Sonata sedan and the Elantra compact according to Reuters.
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