Hyundai Motor starts work on China joint venture

South Korea's top automaker Hyundai Motor said Tuesday its joint venture with a Chinese firm has started the construction of a truck plant in the world's fastest-growing vehicle market.

Hyundai said Sichuan Hyundai Motor, a 50-50 joint venture between Hyundai and China's Sichuan Nanjun Automobile Group, would complete the plant in Ziyang by the first half of 2014.

The plant will roll out 150,000 trucks annually, it said.

The company said the joint venture would increase its capacity to 300,000 to meet growing demand for commercial vehicles in China

The joint venture also plans to produce buses at the Chinese firm's existing plant and increase its annual production capacity to 10,000 units by 2014.

Sichuan Hyundai Motor is Hyundai's third joint venture in China.

Hyundai expects China's commercial vehicle market to grow to 4.71 million in 2017 from 4.03 million in 2011.