South Korean automaker SsangYong Motors has opened an assembly plant in Sri Lanka in collaboration with Micro Cars, its official distributor in the country, according to a company statement late last week. The newly built assembly plant is located in the Board of Investment export processing zone, close to the capital city of Colombo. The new assembly line will assemble SsangYong’s sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and compact sedans and have a production capacity of 14,600 units per annum. Lawrence Perera, the chief executive officer of SsangYong Micro Cars, said: "I believe that Micro Cars can increase SsangYong Motors' share in the Sri Lankan market with this new facility. Also, we will strive to improve the quality of the products and look forward to the successful launching of X100, the new type of SUV, by 2015 in Sri Lanka."
Significance: SsangYong is planning to launch the locally assembled Korando, Actyon Sports, Rexton and Stavic models in Sri Lanka this year. Sri Lanka's automotive industry is highly dependent on imports − mostly from India owing to its geographical proximity. The government of Sri Lanka has increased taxes on imported vehicles to as much as 200% from 120%, in an effort to encourage local domestic automotive industry. Local assembly of vehicles will enable SsangYong to competitively price its models suited to the Sri Lankan market.
