Chery and Geely are sliding into South Korea's DMs
Chinese automakers are getting creative to dodge trade tariffs by turning South Korea into their secret backdoor to the global market.
It turns out that when you face enough trade barriers in the West, you start looking for a roommate who already has a key to the house. Chery just dropped a cool $75 million into KG Mobility—formerly SsangYong—to get cozy with their manufacturing setup. Meanwhile, Geely has been playing this game for a while, owning a massive chunk of Renault Korea and pumping out Polestar 4s from a plant in Busan.
The goal is simple: use a South Korean factory to slap a 'Made in Korea' label on stuff that started in China. It is a clever move to avoid those nasty import duties and bypass some of the heat from Washington and Brussels. While everyone claims this is just about 'joint software development,' it is pretty obvious that the real play is using South Korea as a giant, legitimate-looking export hub.
Ultimately, a 'Made in Korea' badge might not be enough to hide the supply chain if regulators decide to look under the hood. Let that sink in.
Source: Asia Today
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