No plan to shift AP plant: Kia Motors

Hyderabad: South Korean automaker Kia Motors on Thursday stoutly denied a report that it was planning to shift its $1.1-billion automobile manufacturing plant out of Andhra Pradesh and described the report as baseless.

"The news report shocked us. It is shocking to see such a report when our plant in Andhra Pradesh is doing extremely well. It is the worst formation of imagination and concoction," Manohar Bhat, Head (Sales & Marketing), Kia Motors India, told The Hans India.

Global news agency Reuters on Thursday reported that Kia Motors is in talks with Tamil Nadu on "the possibility of moving a $1.1 billion plant out of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh only months after it fully opened, due to policy changes last year". It quoted unnamed sources close to the reported talks.

Kia inaugurated the Andhra plant, its first in the world's fifth-largest car market, in December after two years of construction. It has an annual capacity of some 300,000 units and created 12,000 direct and indirect jobs, the report said.

Terming this report as totally untrue and full of falsehoods, Bhat said: "We have very cordial relations with AP government. We have no problems and no concerns whatsoever. It is surprising to see an unnamed Kia Motors official being quoted in the story. This is worst form of concoction. it is surprising and shocking for us. It is a totally baseless report".

I don't know who is behind this news, he added.