Visteon to expand manufacturing operations in Slovakia with focused factory for Kia

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

Visteon's just-in-time focused factory will deliver climatecontrol components to Kia for future vehicle models produced forthe European market. Start of production is planned for December2006. Kia is the second customer that Visteon will supply out ofSlovakia.

Visteon and its Korean affiliate Halla Climate Control (HCC)have been awarded substantial climate control business for Kia'sEuropean 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 climatecontrol system. Visteon's new Dubnica focused factory will be ahub for the supply of all Visteon climate control content to Kiain Slovakia, with components being manufactured across Visteon'sworldwide facilities, including Slovakia, Czech Republic andKorea.

"This new business award for Kia Motors is testimony ofVisteon's growing relationship with Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group,Visteon's second largest customer worldwide," said Dr. MathiasHüttenrauch, Visteon's director for the Asian customer businessunit in Europe. "Visteon's global product development,engineering and manufacturing capabilities, as well as itsability to deliver products just-in-time and on a global scalepositions Visteon as an important partner to Asian Hyundai-KiaAutomotive Group. Visteon is ideally positioned to serviceHyundai-Kia not only in Asia, but also in North America andEurope, where the car manufacturer is increasing its marketshare."

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

"The Dubnica facility will exclusively focus on supplying theKia program," said Dr. Karl Krause, vice president of Visteon'sEuropean and South American manufacturing operations. "We aretailoring our manufacturing, quality and supply-chain processesaround the individual requirements of our OEM customers. Ourcustomer focus is the reason we call our just-in-time plantsfocused factories."

Earlier this year, Visteon announced plans for amanufacturing facility in Nitra, Slovakia. That facility is alsounderway. Visteon's Nitra plant is designed to become animportant base for the production of plastics components forinterior and climate control products to supply car manufacturerslocated in Eastern Europe. In Nitra, Visteon will alsomanufacture interior components as a supplier to PSA Peugeot-Citroën.Pressekontakt:Britta Lange+49-2273-595-2667blange5@visteon.com

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