The Managing Director of Globe Motors, Mr. Victor Oguamalam has explained why upon an annual installed capacity of 6,000 vehicles at the new plant of the company, it has not been able to move close to the daily capacity.
He said the daily production is subject to market and other forces to avoid market glut.
Globe Motors is among the over 30 local automakers in Nigeria accredited by the National Automotive Design and Development Council under the Nigeria Automotive Industry Development Plan to assemble vehicles.
The accreditation further encouraged the group to enter into partnership with Higer Bus Company of China which led to the building of an ultra modern vehicle assembly plant at the cost of $200m in Lagos.
Explaining more during a recent facility tour, Ogunmalam said “Though we are not producing at installed capacity, we have started production at the plant. We currently have an annual installed capacity of 6,000 vehicles at the plant; the daily production is subject to market and other forces”.
However, he hinted that the current production capacity of plant located along the Eleko-Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos could be increased depending on demand.
According to him, “Before we started assembling, Hyundai engineers came and set up the plant, trained our (members of) staff for months and we took it up from there.
“They overwhelming came in two batches made up of group of engineers who installed the equipment and set up the assembly lines as well as the marketing department. Even the engineers who came to put us through were amazed by the competence of our staff. They confessed that the technical workers in Nigeria are knowledgeable and pick faster than in other countries where they tried to set up plants.”
In his remarks, the Plant Manager, Mr. Simon Njere, noted that the facility can compare effectively with its peers anywhere in the world.
He assured that Our quality is the same with Hyundai and Higer in Korea and China, respectively. We have not received any complaint from customers since we started production. I see Globe Motors moving to Complete Knock Down stage very soon.”
