Latest news with #carManufacturing
Bloomberg
9 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
China's Rare Earth Exports Slump in May as Magnet Sales Curbed
China's exports of rare earth products — including powerful magnets now at the heart of tensions with the US — slumped to a fresh five-year low in May as Beijing's export curbs choked flows. The data for last month shows the extent to which export controls in place since early April had curbed shipments, before a US-China meeting to resolve the restrictions. A shortage of vital magnets has threatened industries including car making from the US to Europe and India.
Auto Car
a day ago
- Automotive
- Auto Car
Inside Ulsan - the world's biggest car factory where a car is made every 10 seconds
The Korean brand's factory is the world's largest car-making facility, with five separate factories and an on-site port Open gallery Ulsan's dock is metres from the factory. Cars are loaded fresh from the production lines The ships are filled with cars and depart Ulsan every 24 hours Next stop America – or one of 200 or so other countries to which Hyundai exports cars Close Looking out from the bridge of the Morning Christina, the view is filled with thousands and thousands of factory-fresh Hyundai cars. Up to 6000 of them are being loaded onto the 11 decks of the 380-metre-long vessel, bound for California, across the Pacific Ocean. 'It'll take about 13 days,' says the ship's captain. 'Then we'll come back and do it again.' This is the final step of a unique process in car manufacturing that is based here at Hyundai's Ulsan plant on the south-eastern coast of South Korea. With a dock literally on site, cars are built, tested and shipped all in one seamless operation. How many cars are produced here? A staggering 1.5 million a year – that's almost double the UK's 2024 output from 25 factories, and it would have been enough to fulfil 98% of all new car sales in Italy last year. Welcome, then, to the world's largest vehicle plant. Set on a 1200-acre site (the same size as the pretty Bedfordshire town of Tilsworth), the Ulsan plant's positioning is crucial to its effectiveness. As well as being home to five factories plus an engine and transmission plant, it is the only automotive production facility in the world to have a dedicated on-site port – one that ships 75% of its yearly output to more than 200 countries around the globe. On site, 17 different models are produced, from the Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson to the entire Genesis line-up. Production lines run for 18 hours a day. A sixth EV-only plant is on schedule to open next year, and it will build the upcoming Genesis GV90. The Ulsan plant was opened in 1968 just a year after Hyundai itself was formed, and the site was originally established as a small Ford assembly facility, where Cortinas were hand-built for the local market. Today, Ulsan is a behemoth, and on entering the site its size is immediately obvious. Factory after factory rolls past our window, as well as a lot of trees (around 600,000 of them), until we pull up at Plant 5. Built in 1979, the facility originally produced golf carts – by hand. Today, the Genesis G70, G80 and G90 saloons are made alongside the Hyundai Palisade and hydrogen-fuelled Nexo. Electric batteries for the G80 are also made here. After they roll off the production line, and following a quality control check, finished cars are darted away to a huge car park at the dockside. We follow their very short route and pull up alongside the huge Eukor roll-on/roll-off transport vessel. Such is the size of the ship that a Suzuki Carry is used for transport inside. Cars are being loaded onto the ship via a steep ramp at the rear. Just minutes after a number of Elantras have blasted up it, the drivers – now on foot – race back down the ramp and jump into a Hyundai Staria to be driven to their next machines. It's a daily process, with one ship leaving the port every 24 hours. This unique way of producing and exporting cars saves both money and time, a factory manager tells us, and is a key reason why Hyundai can make so many vehicles each year. The city of Ulsan that has grown around the plant is now home to 1.1 million people (roughly the same population as Birmingham). When ground was broken on the factory site in 1968, just 30,000 lived in the area – fewer than the 34,000 employed by the plant alone today. Five years prior, Ulsan was primarily a fishing port. Now it is South Korea's industrial hub, formed by Hyundai Ulsan, neighbouring Hyundai Heavy Industries – the world's largest ship-building company that was spun off from its parent in 2002 – and the world's third-largest oil refinery, owned by SK Energy. The company's importance is visible across the city: there's a motorway named after Hyundai's founder and many institutions – a hospital, a school, restaurants – bear the Hyundai name. And, of course, there's the vast port facility. The port, the factory and the city that's grown around it are testament to Hyundai's incredible ambition. Our guide sums it up: 'Ulsan is the city that made Hyundai what it is today.' Join our WhatsApp community and be the first to read about the latest news and reviews wowing the car world. Our community is the best, easiest and most direct place to tap into the minds of Autocar, and if you join you'll also be treated to unique WhatsApp content. You can leave at any time after joining - check our full privacy policy here. Next Prev In partnership with
The Guardian
08-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Trump and Starmer confirm ‘breakthrough' US-UK trade deal
Donald Trump and Keir Starmer have announced a 'breakthrough' trade deal that is expected to slash US tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel. Speaking from the White House, with Keir Starmer on speakerphone, the US president said the bond between the US and UK would be 'stronger than ever before'. Starmer said it was a 'fantastic, historic day' for the two countries and that the agreement was 'hugely important for sectors like car manufacturing, and for steel and aluminium and so many others. 'Yes, we can finish ironing out some of the details but there's a fantastic platform here,' the prime minister said. The announcement makes the UK the first country to agree a deal with the US since Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs in April billed by the US president as 'liberation day', which sent global stock markets plunging for days until Trump announced a 90-day pause, which will expire on 9 July. The US president said Thursday's deal would lead to the creation of an aluminium and steel trading zone and a secure pharmaceutical supply chain. UK and US negotiators have been in talks for weeks over a carve-out. The UK has been focused on agreeing deal that will lower US tariffs on British steel, aluminium and cars. The US is the number one export market for British cars, worth more than £6bn last year, and is also an important market for British steel. Ministers are expected to update MPs on the talks with the US with a statement in the Commons later. The deal with the UK will be seen as a vindication of the conciliatory approach Starmer has taken towards Trump, which has faced criticism from some Labour MPs and the Liberal Democrats. Despite their considerable political differences the prime minister has sought to build a rapport with the US president and has declined to criticise him directly over tariffs or his statements on Russia or Gaza. UK government officials were blind-sided by the timing of the announcement, however. Industry figures were only informed of it in the early hours of Thursday. The US has been under pressure to strike tariff agreements to shore up the US economy. In a sign of how quickly UK and US officials raced to announce an agreement, Trump said on Thursday 'final details' were still being written up. For months, as economists warned his controversial trade strategy risked triggering a recession, Trump and his closest officials insisted it would set the stage for the White House to hammer out dozens of trade deals. But earlier this week, the US president pushed back against 'everyone' asking when such agreements would be struck. 'We don't have to sign deals,' he said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. 'They have to sign deals with us. They want our market. We don't want a piece of their market. We don't care about their market.' US deals with other leading economies including India and Japan, while repeatedly mooted by administration officials, have yet to come to fruition. Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary, claimed this week that talks were under way with 17 trading partners. By Thursday morning in the Oval Office, Trump took a different tack. US officials had 'many meetings planned', the president said, noting that Bessent would be meeting Chinese counterparts in Switzerland on Saturday. 'Every country wants to be making deals.' The content of the deal will be closely scrutinised after reports that the UK was preparing controversial concessions, including cutting tax on US tech companies and reviewing the enforcement of new online safety laws, to secure it. British ministers have ruled out watering down food standards as part of the negotiations. Food campaigners and farmers are staunchly against any move that could allow chlorine-dipped chicken and hormone-treated beef to be sold in British supermarkets. UK government officials said the deal was a starting point from which the two sides would keep negotiating. Ministers are hopeful of further concessions on the British pharmaceutical and film industries, which face a severe hit. In a post on Truth Social earlier on Thursday, Trump said it was a great honour to reach the first agreement with the UK 'because of our long time history and allegiance together'. The UK government is in talks to host Trump for a state visit later this year, after Starmer personally handed him an invitation from the king during their first White House meeting in February. The US president suggested last month that Buckingham Palace was 'setting a date September'. It would make Trump the first world leader in recent history to be invited for a second full state visit to the UK.
