Hyundai Mobis Negotiating Parts Deal with VW and BMW

Hyundai Mobis, an auto parts affiliate of Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, announced it is in talks with Germanys premium automaker BMW and Volkswagen to supply various vehicles modules to their China and US operations.

Hyundai Mobis is negotiating to make a deal with Volkswagen to supply more than 160.000 vehicle modules annually to Volkswagens Tennessee (USA) based manufacturing plant, scheduled to begin operating in 2011. The Korean largest car parts maker, Hyundai Mobis is also in talks with BMW to supply its Shengyang (China) plant with 50.000 axle modules per year.

If the deal between Mobis and both German automakers gets signed, then this is going to be a historical moment for Hyundai Mobis and Korean car parts industry because to date no Korean firm has succeeded to seize such a deal with German auto manufacturers. German automakers have usually been favouring European parts makers for their parts purchases.

Hyundai Mobis’ growth during the past ten years have been as impressive as that of Hyundai Motor Company. Hyundai Mobis invested millions of dollars to improve their quality, competitiveness and brands image.

The company now wants to become one of the top 10 largest car parts makers in the world. This is a very optimistic goal, but it seems more attainable now after the Automotive News ranked Hyundai Mobis 19th among the worlds top 100 auto parts makers, based on their sales performance in 2008.

Germanys Bosch maintained its lead with sales of $33.91 billion, followed by Japan’s Denso with $27.76 billion and Germany’s Continental with $25.01 billion. Canadas Magana fell one notch to fourth place with $23.30 billion, with Japan’s Aisin next with $20.80 billion.

Thanks to the surging sales of its core parts technologies, including high-tech brakes, air bags, and steering systems, Hyundai Mobis achieved sales of US $8.85 billion. It also improved its ranking by jumping from 27th position achieved last year to the top 20 car parts makers in the world.

Besides Hyundai Mobis, there was another Korean car parts maker listed in the top100 list. With sales of US $2.2 billion, Korea’s Mando was up three notches from the previous year and is now listed as the 73rd largest car parts maker in the world.