The pressure of tariffs continues to take effect
On March 25, Hyundai Motor Group announced that it will invest USD 21 billion (CNY 152.5 billion) in the United States by 2028. Specifically, the investment in the automobile production field will amount to USD 8.6 billion, the investment in the fields of parts, logistics and steel will be USD 6.1 billion, and the investment in industries and energy fields will reach USD 6.3 billion in the future.
Chung Eui-Sun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, said that 1,300 US employees will be hired at the steel mill in Louisiana to lay a solid foundation for building a more independent and stable US automobile supply chain.
In terms of automobile production, the HMGMA, a dedicated electric vehicle factory of Hyundai Motor located in Georgia, USA, will create more than 8,500 jobs. The annual production capacity will increase by 200,000 to 500,000 vehicles, and the group's total annual production capacity of factories in the US aims to reach 1.2 million vehicles. In addition, the group will also build an electric furnace steel mill in Louisiana, USA, dedicated to producing low-carbon automotive steel plates.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the new investment plan of Hyundai Motor Group is the first large-scale investment plan in the US by a major South Korean company since Donald Trump elected president of the United States for the second time. It is worth noting that Trump is about to implement the "reciprocal tariff" policy on April 2. It is expected that this policy will take into account the tariff levels and non-tariff barriers of various countries against the US. Therefore, Hyundai Motor Group's investment move is also regarded as one of the strategies for South Korean export enterprises to cope with Trump's tariff policy.
As the Trump government plans to levy high "reciprocal tariffs" on countries with a large trade surplus with the US, including South Korea, major global export enterprises to the US have been actively or passively increasing their investments in the US in order to avoid tariff risks.
