The official groundbreaking ceremony for Hyundai’s fourth Chinese assembly plant held April 3 reflected the country’s new hardline stance with foreign automakers.
The troubled history of the $1 billion project in Cangzhou is well known. Hyundai had applied for permission to build its fourth plant in Chongqing in southwest China, a potentially lucrative market with just 54 passenger vehicles per 100,000 residents, compared with 240 per 100,000 in the Beijing region where Cangzhou is located.
Hyundai had hoped to break ground for the Chongqing plant in June 2014. But the Chinese National Government and Reform Commission, which has central authority, insisted Hyundai also invest in Cangzhou in Hebei Province, 135 miles (217 km) south of Hyundai’s three existing plants in Beijing.
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