Tata Motors mulls assembling line in Korea
By siliconindia staff writer   |   Monday, 29 March 2004, 20:30 IST
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GUNSAN: India's third-biggest passenger carmaker Tata Motors on Monday evinced interest in assembling cars in Korea and said it was in talks with Korean automakers to forge alliances. "If the market is large enough to do it, that is what we want to do", group Chairman Ratan Tata said after taking over Daewoo's commercial vehicles operations here. "If there is a market for cars in Korea, we should look at assembling in Korea", he said. This would be the group's first such venture outside India if it went through. The Tata group company manufactures cars at its Pune plant and has tie-up with UK-based automaker MG Rover to sell compact car 'Indica' in Britain and Europe. Asked about other ventures the group was planning in the Korean peninsula, Tata said the company was in talks with Korean firms across various sectors for forging alliances. Tata, however, declined to give details about the prospective partners. Queried whether today's Korean foray was a precursor to entry into China, Tata said he had no specific plans for China at this stage but preliminary talks had been held in that country. "We will like to make it (DWCV) globally visible and if that includes China then it will be so", he said. Analysts said the Daewoo takever would give a fillip to Tata Motors China strategy. Tata Motors has a 15 per cent market share in the Indian car market and is the third largest producer after Maruti and Hyundai. It sold 104,155 cars last year recording a a 17.5 per cent rise. Tata Motors has commenced work on 'people's car' costing under Rs 1 lakh.

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