Visteon to Expand Manufacturing Operations in Slovakia with Focused Factory for Kia

KERPEN, Germany, Aug. 15  /PRNewswire/ -- Visteon Corporation (NYSE:VC) announced today that it will expand its manufacturing footprint in Eastern Europe by building a focused factory in Dubnica, Slovak Republic, dedicated to supporting Kia.

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Visteon's just-in-time focused factory will deliver climate control components to Kia for future vehicle models produced for the European market. Start of production is planned for December 2006.  Kia is the second customer that Visteon will supply out of Slovakia.

Visteon and its Korean affiliate Halla Climate Control (HCC) have been awarded substantial climate control business for Kia's European operations, including the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning module (HVAC), powertrain cooling module, compressor, air-conditioning hoses and temperature controls.  Visteon will be Kia's main systems integrator for the climate control system.  Visteon's new Dubnica focused factory will be a hub for the supply of all Visteon climate control content to Kia in Slovakia, with components being manufactured across Visteon's worldwide facilities, including Slovakia, Czech Republic and Korea.

"This new business award for Kia Motors is testimony of Visteon's growing relationship with Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, Visteon's second largest customer worldwide," said Dr. Mathias Huettenrauch, Visteon's director for the Asian customer business unit in Europe.  "Visteon's global product development, engineering and manufacturing capabilities, as well as its ability to deliver products just-in-time and on a global scale positions Visteon as an important partner to Asian Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group. Visteon is ideally positioned to service Hyundai-Kia not only in Asia, but also in North America and Europe, where the car manufacturer is increasing its market share."

Visteon's focused factory in Dubnica will be laid out for a capacity of 300,000 vehicle units at full production by 2010 and can be expanded to higher production volumes.  The building will cover 3,800 square meters on 12,000 square meters of land.

"The Dubnica facility will exclusively focus on supplying the Kia program," said Dr. Karl Krause, vice president of Visteon's European and South American manufacturing operations.  "We are tailoring our manufacturing, quality and supply-chain processes around the individual requirements of our OEM customers.  Our customer focus is the reason we call our just-in-time plants focused factories."

Earlier this year, Visteon announced plans for a manufacturing facility in Nitra, Slovakia.  That facility is also underway.  Visteon's Nitra plant is designed to become an important base for the production of plastics components for interior and climate control products to supply car manufacturers located in Eastern Europe.  In Nitra, Visteon will also manufacture interior components as a supplier to PSA Peugeot-Citroen.

Visteon Corporation is a leading, full-service supplier that delivers consumer-driven technology solutions to automotive manufacturers worldwide and through multiple channels within the global automotive aftermarket.  Visteon has about 70,000 employees and a global delivery system of more than 200 technical, manufacturing, sales and service facilities located in 24 countries. 

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DATASOURCE: Visteon Corporation



CONTACT:  Britta Lange, 49-2273-5952667, E-mail:  , or

Vivien Ronco, 44-1268-701234, E-mail:  , both of Visteon

Corporation



Web site:  http://www.visteon.com/ 

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