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GM: No Plan to Exit Korea as Labor Costs Jump Nearly 50%
General Motors Co. tells Reuters it won't close any of its four auto plants in South Korea, even though production is down and its labor costs there have soared almost 50% in five years.
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General Motors Co. tells Reuters it won't close any of its four auto plants in South Korea, even though production is down and its labor costs there have soared almost 50% in five years.
Still, GM Korea CEO Sergio Rocha warns that Korea's rising labor costs "may impact our sustainability" in the country unless something can be done quickly.
Last year GM avoid a strike in Korea by promising to produce the next-generation Chevrolet Cruze there beginning in 2017. Reuters notes that two GM assembly plants in Korea are underutilized since GM decided to phase out its Chevrolet brand in Europe at the end of 2015. GM Korea supplied most of those vehicles.
Since then, Rocha says, the unit has offset about one-third of lost shipments to Europe by hiking exports of the Chevy Trax small crossover to the U.S.
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