South Korea Won A New Car Exporter: Nissan

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Nissan joins Hyundai and Kia in exporting cars to the U.S. Nissan will make the Rogue SUV at a plant of Alliance partner Renault Samsung Motor. This according to similar reports by Reuters and the Nikkei [sub], both without quoting official sources.

The Renault Samsung plant has been suffering from sinking domestic sales for a while. “From an alliance perspective it made a lot of sense,” Reuters’ inside source said. “Renault Samsung Motors has an under-utilized plant and Nissan has blockbuster products in factories nearing saturation.”

The Busan factory is running at 60 percent capacity. Nissan had used Samsung in the past, making cars for the Middle East and Africa. South Korea is an attractive export base due to a low Won and a series of free trade agreements. Definitely more attractive than Japan.

We could not reach our sources at Nissan and Renault, they were said to be “on a trip to Korea.”

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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 4 comments
  • Schmitt trigger Schmitt trigger on Jul 19, 2012

    In the past week alone, I might have read not less than half dozen articles mentioning that Japanese automakers are moving production out of Japan to cope with the ultra-strong Yen. And where the automakers go, the autoparts guys follow. And then the steel, fabrication and electronics companies. We may witness fairly soon a Japanese "rust belt" extending from Nagoya to Toyota City.

    • Jetcal1 Jetcal1 on Jul 19, 2012

      When you consider the ascendancy of Japanese cars started about 30 years ago, it almost appears they are following the footsteps of Detroit.

  • Wstarvingteacher Wstarvingteacher on Jul 19, 2012

    I think I remember an article on TTAC where Ghosn warned Japan that this was going to happen if they kept the Yen strong.

  • Vaggo Vaggo on Jul 20, 2012

    To be fair, the Yen being strong isnt entirely due to government policy and they are limited in what they can do. At the moment the Yen is seen as a "safe" currency to invest in what with all the economic issues in the EU, US and UK. So these "standard" investment currencies are less appealing. People are trading more Yen, hence the yen goes up.

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