HYUNDAI TRANS KAZAKHSTAN
Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan, a subsidiary of Astana Motors, is a full-cycle plant for the production of Hyundai passenger cars.
The plant has a production capacity of 50,000 cars per year. The plant produced 37,205 and 48,857 cars in 2022 and 2023, respectfully. Over the first 9 months of 2024, 29,138 cars were made. Since 2020, the company has produced 149,323 cars in total.
Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan produces 10 Hyundai models – the Tucson, the Sonata, the Elantra, the Santa Fe, the Palisade, the Staria, the i30, the Bayon, the i20, and the Custin. The Hyundai Accent and the Hyundai Tucson models are made using welding and painting (completely knocked down, CKD).
Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan performs all operations in strict compliance with the approved production process of Hyundai Motor Company. Each car is tested for compliance with Hyundai international standards.
In November 2023, Astana Motors launched a project to expand production areas and upgrade workshops. The goal of the project is to automate key processes and increase CKD production capacity from 12,000 to 24,000 cars per year to launch the production of new models with welding and painting.
The first stage of upgrades, which included the construction of a new workshop and a pre-delivery inspection (PDI) workshop, was completed in July of this year. As a result, the production area of Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan increased by 6,000 square meters to expand the total area of the plant to 40,000 square meters.
During the second stage of upgrades, undertaken from December 2024 to March 2025, the welding, paint and assembly workshops will be reconstructed and upgraded, and CKD production of another model, the Hyundai Santa Fe, will be established.
The welding shop upgrade includes the installation of 4 welding robots, 111 welding guns, an automatic conveyor, an automatic roof roller, and a welding jig for the Santa Fe model. The new equipment will allow the plant to produce up to 7 bodies per hour. To produce each body, 45 parts must be welded and 1,624 welding spots applied.
The paint workshop will also receive additional and new equipment, which will double the workshop productivity and allow 6–7 bodies to be painted per hour. The cataphoresis lines and production areas (application of sealant, mastic, and polishing) will be upgraded, a new oven for drying paint coatings will be installed, and the paint chamber will be upgraded. In addition, 6 Yaskawa robots and an automatic conveyor for feeding bodies to the paint line will be installed.
The upgrade of the assembly workshop will also double its productivity – to 6 cars per hour. The length of the assembly line will increase from 16 to 27 assembly stations. The workshop will receive an automatic chassis conveyor line with EMS body hangers for transporting bodies, conveyors for the interior and exterior parts assembly lines, additional manipulators and a robot for applying sealant to windshields. AGV robot tractors will be used to transport bodies from the paint workshop to the assembly workshop.
On completion of the second stage of upgrades, 47.6B tenge will have been invested in the plant.
Today, the plant has 1,300 jobs. In 2025, Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan will increase its personnel to 1,700.
History
On October 23, 2020, the plant, including body paint and welding workshops, plastic part paint workshops, and a component warehouse, was fully launched. Astana Motors fulfilled its obligations to build the Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan plant and implemented the project within one year during the pandemic. More than 120 engineers from South Korea took part in the installation of equipment at the new production facility in different stages.
The Hyundai Trans Kazakhstan project was implemented with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Construction of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Development Bank of Kazakhstan, the Industrial Development Fund, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, KazakhExport Export Insurance Company, and the Akimat of Almaty.
- Documentary film “The Tucson. How it was Made in Kazakhstan” (in Kazakh, in Russian).
- Documentary film “ON DRIVE: 30 Years of Astana Motors”.