Report: Construction of GA KIA plant delayed indefinitely

[Charlie Brown]

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/stories/0519bizkia.html

South Korea's Kia Motors Corp. says it is indefinitely postponing the start of construction of its $1.2 billion plant in west Georgia amid an ongoing probe into the firm and its parent Hyundai Motor Co, Reuters News service is reporting from Seoul.

"The construction of the plant in Georgia has been postponed following a delay of a groundbreaking ceremony, and we have not decided when to begin," Kia spokesman Kim Do-hag told Reuters via telephone on Thursday.

But Alex Fedorak, a California-based spokesman for Kia Motors America, said news of a postponement contradicts what he had been told only last night. He was scrambling to check on the report today.

"I don't have any information to confirm or deny it," Fedorak said.

Shane Hix, a spokesman for Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, said, "Last we heard was that everything was moving forward as planned."

As recently as Wednesday afternoon, Perdue had said he was confident that plant construction was on schedule. He said state officials were in constant contact with Kia officials.

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[napi21]

1. And here's a opposite story from the Atlanta Business Journal.

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2006/05/15/daily34.html?jst=b_ln_hl

State and Kia: Georgia plant still a go
Atlanta Business Chronicle - 2:39 PM EDT Thursdayby Jacques Couret and Ryan MahoneyStaff Writers

Reports of the demise of Kia Motor Co.'s $1.2 billion car plant project in Georgia are premature, according to officials with the automaker and the state.

Byung Mo Ahn, the Kia official overseeing the West Point, Ga., project's development, told the Georgia Department of Economic Development Thursday that the plant is still a go, said department spokesman Bert Brantley.



"We don't get any sense from the company team, at least to this point, that there's any delay at all," Brantley said. "We will break ground this summer."

I have no idea which one's right!