South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor Co. has begun to act out shift in its focus to the Southeast Asian market as it continues to struggle in its key markets of the United States and China.

Hyundai Motor said on Monday that it has provided 50 units of its minivan H350 (called Solati in Korea) model as the official mobility partner of ASEAN 50 Summit this year to the host country at a celebration party held at the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila, Philippines.

“Both Hyundai and ASEAN have turned 50 years old and we are happy to celebrate the meaningful year together,” said an official at Hyundai Motor.

Hyundai Motor has been accelerating foray into the Southeast Asian market where it had been tough to break the dominance by Japanese automakers. But sales in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam as Hyundai Motor have been growing in rapid pace.

Last year, Hyundai Motor delivered 83,690 units of vehicles (including unfinished cars) to the ASEAN region, up 33 percent from 62,865 units a year ago. To meet the growing demand, the Korean automaker and the Vietnamese carmaker Thanh Cong Group in September formed a joint venture where each invested 45 billion won ($40 million).

Recently, the automaker has formed an internal task force team under its Asia, the Middle East and Africa section in the overseas sales department to expand in the ASEAN countries. “Because of challenges in the North American and the Chinese market, the company feels the necessity to seek alternative revenue base,” said an unnamed official at the company. “Hyundai Motor will develop more positive sales strategy targeting Southeast Asia based on its successful inroads into Brazil and Russia.”

By Park Chang-young and Lee Ha-yeon

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