After ten years in Brazil, Hyundai nationalizes engine production

On Tuesday, September 20, Hyundai inaugurated its first engine plant in Latin America, in Piracicaba (São Paulo), ten years after it started producing cars in the Brazilian market. Until then, the equipment was imported from South Korea.

The new R$500 million (US$97 million) unit was installed in the same area as the car plant. It can produce 70,000 engines annually and has generated 256 new jobs.

The company says the plant operates with technologies aligned to the Industry 4.0 concepts and with the same characteristics as the group’s other 12 plants worldwide.

Ken Ramirez, Hyundai Motor’s president for Brazil and Central and South America, says the group works with universities and technical schools in the region in internship and exchange programs.

“We share our facilities, parts, and engines with these institutions to support the development of students and future professionals.”

GROUNDBREAKING ROBOT

“Our new engine plant has a high level of automation in its processes, providing the necessary flexibility to adapt production lines in an agile way,” the executive said in a statement.

The engines will equip the HB20, the best-selling car in Brazil by 2021 and the leader this year, with 61,909 units until August. The Creta SUV is also produced there.

Joel Anjos, director of the engine and quality plant, said that the unit is the brand’s first to use an autonomous mobile robot (AMR), which optimizes the transport of parts.

“This feature reduces by 50% the space required for parts on the production line, thanks to an integrated system that dispenses with the need to accumulate items stocked in the sectors.”

In ten years of operation, the Piracicaba plant has manufactured 1.7 million units of the HB20 and the Creta. With three production shifts, the plant can produce 210,000 vehicles per year.

With information from Estadão