Beijing Hyundai says no slowdown in production

Shanghai, January 9 (Gasgoo.com) Beijing Hyundai Motor Co., a joint venture between South Korea's biggest carmaker and Beijing Automotive Industry Corp, said in a statement that it did not receive any message from Hyundai asking it to cut production and that everything is actually going on as scheduled, a report from Jinghua newspaper said.

A Bloomberg report said on Thursday Hyundai has slowed production at all of its plants, including those in South Korea, China, India, Turkey and the U.S. Kia, which has overseas factories in China and Slovakia, has taken similar steps.

Sales data shows Hyundai has not been seriously affected in the Chinese market by the economic crisis as in elsewhere of the world. Beijing Hyundai was the second fastest growing passenger car maker in China in the first eleven months of 2008, with sales rising 28.6 percent year on year to 266,347 units.

But the company has indeed delayed its output and sales planning for 2009 and refused to make any forecast, saying the current economic environment makes it hard to do that.