SsangYong Motor has solidified its cooperation with its Saudi Arabian partner, SNAM (Saudi National Automobiles Manufacturing Co.), during a visit from SNAM’s CEO to Korea. On the 1st of the month, the CEO held discussions with Kwak Jae-sun, the newly appointed chairman of KG Group.

The meeting, held on the morning of the 29th at KG Tower, was attended by SsangYong Motor’s Kwak Jae-sun, Jong Yong-won, and SNAM’s CEO, Fad Al-Dohesh, along with other representatives from both companies. They discussed the status of the KD cooperation projects and explored ways to strengthen their mutual collaboration.

Additionally, during this visit, SNAM made significant progress towards the establishment of an assembly plant in Saudi Arabia and the installation of production equipment, including discussions on local parts localization with key suppliers of SsangYong Motor.

To initiate their KD project, SsangYong Motor and SNAM signed a product licensing agreement in July 2019 for the Rexton Sports & Khan, and in October 2020 for the Rexton. They also established a local parts supply contract in January this year.

As a result, SNAM has secured completion vehicle production sites in the Jubail Industrial Complex and held the groundbreaking ceremony for a local assembly plant in January. They plan to commence local assembly production in 2023 and aim to expand their annual production capacity to approximately 30,000 units through the construction of a second phase factory.

After SNAM begins mass production, SsangYong Motor plans to export a total of 169,000 units over the next seven years, including 90,000 units of the New Rexton Sports & Khan and 79,000 units of the All-New Rexton.

SsangYong Motor stated, “The establishment of a local KD production base with SNAM is a new breakthrough for expanding export volumes. Now that we are part of the KG Group, we have a solid support base, and we plan to continually expand sales through diversification of export markets and strengthening our global market penetration efforts.”

By Jang Sang-jin (daedusj@autodiary.kr)