As commercial production nears its March 2005 start date at Hyundai's new automotive plant in Montgomery, the company continues to ramp up its personnel roster.
Last week, Hyundai welcomed 100 more employees, most of whom were new production workers. The group started at the plant Monday.
An updated employee count was not immediately available, but adding to earlier counts, the most recent hires should put the total number of Hyundai workers in Alabama at about 750. Already that makes Hyundai a major Montgomery employer, but it's still a far cry from the 2,000 workers they will employ eventually.
Hyundai spokesman Bill Lang said new employees go through a two-week orientation, when they learn policies and procedures, get measured for "team wear," learn about the company, its quality initiatives, safety standards and other issues.
Meanwhile, Alabama Industrial Development Training, the state agency that is recruiting, screening and training candidates for Hyundai production and maintenance positions, continues to sort through the recent flood of applications for jobs at the Hyundai plant.
Hyundai and AIDT reopened the application pipeline in July to recruit more candidates for production jobs at the plant, the positions that represent the vast majority of the 2,000 jobs anticipated once the plant is at full capacity.
There's no estimate yet of how many applications were received during the one-month application period (which since has closed), because AIDT is finding that a large number of people applied more than once.
During the first application period in 2003, some 11,000 applications were received.
A new training class began Sept. 13 for Hyundai job candidates. The newest pool of trainees includes a final batch of candidates from the first application period more than a year ago, and some folks from the second batch.
Phyllis Wesley, a spokeswoman for AIDT, said the state agency is on track to meet the carmaker's hiring schedule.
In other automotive happenings of late, American Honda Motor Co. reported total August sales of 126,625 vehicles, down 14 percent from the 147,253 units sold in the same month last year.
Honda produces two car models at its plant in Lincoln -- the Pilot and the Odyssey.
Industrywide, vehicle sales in the United States were down about 12.5 percent between August 2003 and last month, according to Ward's AutoWorld data.
Honda's Acura division, however, reported record-breaking sales of 16,434 for August, up from 16,204 in August of last year. According to a news release from the Acura division, August was the ninth consecutive month of record setting sales for Acura.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz USA reported a 2.3 percent sales increase in August compared with year-earlier period. The company sold 17,984 vehicles, compared with 17,583 in August 2003. Mercedes opened the first of Alabama's automotive manufacturing plants a decade ago in Vance.
Year to date, Mercedes' sales were down 1.5 percent through August.
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