Hyundai to go it alone

SEOUL: While its automotive rivals eagerly seek foreign links for capital and marketing, South Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor said it can do well without foreign partners.

"Hyundai Motor has its own capital and technology," said Chung Mong-kyu, Hyundai Motor chairman. "Hyundai is not considering an alliance with foreign companies."

While other domestic rivals suffer from rising import prices and high royalty payments because of their high reliance on imports and foreign technology, Hyundai enjoys an edge because of its high localization of parts, he said.

"Some foreign companies have expressed their wish to cooperate with us. But we think we can do it on our own," Chung said in an interview with Reuters and several local newspapers.

Chung said he was not against moves by rival companies to seek capital injections from foreign partners because such alliances could improve their weak equity basis.

"But I wonder how those sorts of strategic alliances can resolve the overcapacity problems," he said.