(Recasts, updates with executive comment, details, adds byline)
By Scott Hillis
BEIJING, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co Ltd rolled out its first China sedan on Monday and raised its sales outlook for the country by half as South Korea's top automaker revs up in one of the world's fastest-growing auto markets.
Hyundai would make about 3,000 of its Sonata sedans this year at its joint venture with Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings on the edge of the Chinese capital, executives said.
"In 2003 our production and sales will reach 50,000 passenger cars, and in 2005 will reach a scale of 300,000 vehicles, and we will ascend into the ranks of the top domestic automakers," Beijing Hyundai Chairman Xu Heyi told reporters.
Xu's figures are about 50 percent higher than estimates of 30,000 cars for 2003 and 200,000 cars in 2005 given by Hyundai in October when it announced the tie-up with Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings.
Executives did not detail investment in the 50-50 joint venture, but Hyundai said earlier it was initially investing $100 million and would raise that to $430 million by 2005 and $1.1 billion by 2010.
In an unusual sign of high-level support for the venture, Jia Qingling, Beijing's former Communist Party chief who was elevated to the Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee in November, watched and applauded as the first pearly white Sonata sedan inched off the factory line.
Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng, who is expected to step down in a government reshuffle next March, also attended.
Hyundai shares ended down 4.3 percent at 30,850 Korean won on Monday, compared to a 2.55 percent fall in the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index .
RIDING CHINA'S CAR BOOM
Hyundai is one in a string of automakers to roll into the booming Chinese market this year, along with the likes of Japan's Toyota Motor Corp and France's PSA Peugeot Citroen .
Car sales in China have topped one million vehicles this year for the first time as rising incomes, falling prices, and an unprecedented array of new economy cars hitting the market fuel growth of more than 40 percent over last year.
Other car giants, such as Germany's Volkswagen AG and General Motors of the United States have been in China for years and are expanding their line-ups with new models ranging from compact cars to luxury sedans and minivans.
Hyundai's factory will mostly make the mid-sized Sonata sedan, which will be priced between 176,000 yuan ($21,250) for a basic version with a 2.0-litre engine to 265,000 yuan for the high-end trim with a 2.7-litre motor, a Beijing Automotive official said.
The plant, which Hyundai took over from a failed light vehicle maker, will also produce Hyundai's Elantra economy model next April, Mao Hai, executive assisant to the general manager of affiliate firm Beijing Automotive Investment Co, said.
Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Kia Motors , is the world's eighth largest automaker, with expected output of 2.8 million vehicles in 2002. It aims to raise production to five million by 2010.