Hyundai Mobis Won Combined $233 Million Order

Hyundai Mobis, An affiliate of the Hyundai Motor Group, said today that it won a combined $233 million order from Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors and Subaru to supply automotive lamps in what will be its first parts supply to Japanese automaker.

The deal comes as Japanese and other car makers are increasingly looking at South Korean parts makers which offer cheaper, quality products as opposed to their Japanese rivals struggling with the strong yen and the March 11 earthquake.

Hyundai Mobis, South Korea’s largest auto supplier said it will supply $200 million worth of headlamps to Mitsubishi Motors and $33 million of rear lamps to Subaru, an automobile manufacturing unit of Fuji Heavy Industries, from the second half of this year.

Hyundai Mobis previously agreed to provide its lamps to Europe’s BMW and Volkswagen as well as U.S. Chrysler Group LLC.

“Japanese and other car makers are turning to South Korean parts makers to save costs and diversify sourcing following the March 11 earthquake,” said Lee Sang-hyun, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities.

Hyundai Mobis, which heavily relies on its sister companies Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors for sales, aims to generate 30 percent of its revenue form overseas exports by 2015, from the current 10 percent.

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Consumer Paid More For The Month Of May

Last month, consumers paid more when shopping in the U.S. auto market. This is according to auto information company Edmunds.com. They paid more and have fewer choices, Edmunds said.

For the month of May, customer that bought a vehicle, paid about $180 more then in April, $310 more for then the month of February, and $410 more then May 2010. Overall incentives were at the lowest last month since October 2005, and incentives fell for compact -23% and subcompact -14% cars more than the average incentives for any other segment between April and May, according to Edmunds.

South Korean automakers turn out to be the biggest winners in Edmunds’ analysis of the monthly sales data released by the industry this week.

Edmunds said that the joint sales for sister companies Hyundai and Kia topped Honda and placed them fifth on the U.S. sales list behind fourth place Toyota. Hyundai has broken its monthly sales record five months straight. Kia has posted a 44.8% sales increase year to date.

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