South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor Co. won an order to ship 200 units of its large truck Xcient to Pakistan, which would be the biggest shipments to the country by the Korean auto giant that first entered the market less than a year ago.

Hyundai Motor said on Friday that the company signed a contract with its sales subsidiary in Pakistan to deliver 200 units of Xcient - 100 tractor trucks, 50 dump trucks and 50 cargo trucks.

Hyundai Motor will start manufacturing the trucks early next year with an aim to ship them before the end of next year. It would be the largest shipments to Pakistan after Hyundai Motor in January returned to the Pakistan auto market where it withdrew in 2004 due to poor sales. Following its return, Hyundai Motor was also reported to seek to set up a car assembly factory in Pakistan in a joint venture with local textile company Nichat Mills.

The latest shipment contract follows after Hyundai Motor has clinched a series of similar deals with other countries to deliver commercial vehicles - 1,042 trucks to Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan, and 300 minibuses to Myanmar and Morocco. Last year, it inked a contract with the Turkmenistan government to ship 500 buses to the country.

By Lee Seung-hoon and Lee Ha-yeon

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