Faisalabad (December 16, 2017): Nishat Mills Limited (NML), one of the largest integrated textiles mills in the country, announced on Friday that it would hold the ground-breaking ceremony of its automobile plant – a joint venture with Hyundai Motor Corporation (HMC) – on December 20, 2017.
Hyundai Nishat Motor (Pvt) Limited, a subsidiary of NML that entered into an investment agreement with HMC earlier in February, has production facilities in M-3, Industrial City, Sahianwala, FIEDMC, Faisalabad, according to a company notice sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).
The news is an important development for the industry because Lucky Cement, one of the largest cement makers in Pakistan that had announced its partnership with Kia Motor Co just two months before NML’s joint venture with HMC, is fast executing its plans at its Karachi plant.
The NML’s joint venture will produce HMC passenger cars and 1-ton range commercial vehicles in Pakistan. Both leading Korean automobile companies, Hyundai and Kia, used to assemble cars in Pakistan but left the market mainly due to the liberal used car import policy in the Musharraf regime.
The sharp increase in the import of used cars massively hit Korean brands that were still trying to consolidate their footprint against well-entrenched Japanese car makers.
The re-entry of Korean brands has been considered a big success of the PML-N government, which took over two years in announcing the new auto policy to give incentives to new entrants and those who left Pakistan earlier.
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