Hyundai’s Alabama auto assembly plant and its supplier network generated a total impact approaching $5 billion in 2014 while also accounting for more than 12,600 direct jobs across the state, according to an analysis released today.
The new study by M. Keivan Deravi, dean of the College of Public Policy and Justice at Auburn University at Montgomery, updates an analysis he performed in 2010, which pegged the Alabama economic impact of Hyundai and its suppliers at $3.8 billion. In Deravi’s new analysis, Hyundai’s Alabama economic impact the economic rose to $4.82 billion in 2014.
“Hyundai has dramatically improved the manufacturing sector of central Alabama’s economy,” said Deravi, who has completed similar studies for several major industrial projects in Alabama, including Airbus and other automakers.
Here’s a breakdown of the impact of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA), as the Montgomery assembly operation is known:
- Last year, HMMA employed 3,732 full-time and temporary workers and had an annual payroll of $260 million, including $44.1 million in benefits.
- HMMA’s Tier 1 and 2 suppliers collectively employed 8,900 people in Alabama, with an annual payroll of $225.5 million in 2014.
- The combined earnings and employment impacts of HMMA and its suppliers were responsible for more than 38,000 full-time jobs across Alabama.
- To date, HMMA has invested a total of $1.8 billion in its Montgomery plant, while its more than 40 Tier 1 and 2 suppliers have made a total capital investment of more than $650 million in Alabama.
- In 2014, HMMA spent $6.3 billion to support its manufacturing operation and maintain its facility and investment, purchasing $3.1 billion in goods and services from Alabama-based businesses.
- HMMA’s Tier 1 and 2 suppliers had total sales of $5.2 billion in 2014, half of which was tied to HMMA purchases. Those suppliers’ non-payroll expenditures were $1 billion in 2014; 56 percent of that total was purchased from Alabama-based businesses.
“We are proud of our track record as an important and rapidly growing Alabama employer, and as a manufacturer of high-value, high-quality and high-efficiency vehicles for American consumers,” said J.H. Kim, HMMA president and CEO.
In May, Hyundai marked 10 years of production of Alabama. Not long after, it marked a production milestone – the 3 millionth vehicle assembled in Montgomery.
“Hyundai is an anchor in Alabama’s expanding auto industry, which has seen new projects and expansions that involve more than 16,000 announced new jobs in the past three years,” said Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce. “Hyundai’s Montgomery plant and its workers have helped fuel the automaker’s growth in the vital U.S. auto market, producing its most popular models.”
