Holden closure is opportunity for South Korea, says GM executive

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/15/holden-closure-opportunity-south-koreans-gm

Version 0 of 1.

The planned shutdown of Holden could mean that Australians will in future be driving more cars made in South Korea, a General Motors executive said.

Stefan Jacoby, GM's new international operations chief, told reporters at the Detroit motor show that the decision to close operations in Australia offers "a lot of opportunity" for South Korea, adding there was a "good likelihood" the Asian nation would ship more cars to Australia given a bilateral trade deal. No decision had been made however.

"We are building our puzzle pieces together for the international markets," Jacoby said.

General Motors said last month it would stop making cars in Australia by 2017 due to high costs and a cripplingly strong currency. It will mean thousands of job losses in the main production centres in South Australia and Victoria and follows a decision by Ford last May to close its Australian manufacturing operation by 2016.

General Motors is undergoing a global restructuring and said late last year that it plans to pull the Chevrolet brand out of Europe by the end of 2015 to concentrate on Opel.

The Chevy pullout plan sparked jitters in Korea about restructuring of GM Korea's operations, which supply most of the Chevy cars sold in Europe.

Mary Barra, the incoming CEO of General Motors, told reporters that GM "remains very committed to the Korean market."

When asked about concerns about higher labour costs in South Korea, she said, "From a competitive perspective it (labour cost) is very important. So it's something that we continually look at."

She did not comment on whether GM's increased production in China would lead to reduced output in the neighboring South Korea.

"...as I said our general intent is to build where we sell. And I don't have any specific. I mean we are continually evaluating what is the most optimal but no specific comments on that.''

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.