Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Kia's Sprague on Crossovers Driving Record Sales in May (Audio)

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Kia's Sprague on Crossovers Driving Record Sales in May (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: Broadcasting live to New York, Bloomberg eleventh Rio to Washington,
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  Speaker 1: This is taking Stock. I'm Kathleen Hayes. Welcome back. My
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  Speaker 1: co host Pim Fox is out of the office today.
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  Speaker 1: A big day for auto sales, the likes of GM
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  Speaker 1: and Ford having a decline in their recent auto sales,
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  Speaker 1: while Kia looking pretty good. In fact, Kia announced record
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  Speaker 1: May sales. We're going to find out how much Hamsters
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  Speaker 1: will be helping those sales. First, let's get to Charlie
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  Speaker 1: Pellow in the newsroom. He's got a bloom big business
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  Speaker 1: flash and stock. So Hi, Thank you, Kathleen. Twenty nine
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  Speaker 1: minutes to go ahead of the clothes on this page
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  Speaker 1: sector E t F Federal Reserve says the U. S.
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  Speaker 1: Economy expanded at a modest pace across most of the
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  Speaker 1: countries since mid April, causing the labor market to tighten
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  Speaker 1: as employers continued adding jobs and nudging wages higher. In
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  Speaker 1: its page book report, the Fed said quote wages grew
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  Speaker 1: modestly and price pressures grew slightly in most districts. Stocks
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  Speaker 1: a little changed after the SMP five d index captain's
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  Speaker 1: longest stretch of stretch of monthly advances since two thousand fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: first trading day of the new month. Stocks are higher
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  Speaker 1: right now SMP of two points to two thousand ninety nine,
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  Speaker 1: a gain of point one percent, down, industrials up nine
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  Speaker 1: again also a point one percent, and stack up six
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  Speaker 1: dall As, senior portfolio manager at Neuvine Asset Management, Sadly,
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  Speaker 1: we just don't know what the rules are. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you you're do an M and a transaction and then
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  Speaker 1: the government turns around and and breaks it up later,
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  Speaker 1: or you don't know what the regulatory environment is going
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  Speaker 1: to be or the tax environment. Like investors with uncertainty,
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  Speaker 1: corporate managements are facing the same thing, so they're very
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  Speaker 1: reluctant to step forward, and investments stead stayed well below
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  Speaker 1: what we'd like to see. Gold down three ten younds
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  Speaker 1: to twelve fourteen, a drop of three tenths of one percent,
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  Speaker 1: Crude now hired by seven cents, seventeen, naval gain of
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  Speaker 1: point one percent, and three two on Wall Street. Now
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  Speaker 1: we'll look at other news. Thank you, Charlie from the
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg News room. I'm Rainey, innocent. CIO. Police on the
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  Speaker 1: campus of U c l A say today's shooting was
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  Speaker 1: a murder suicide. The campus had been on lockdown since
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  Speaker 1: this morning when reports of a shooting came in. The
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  Speaker 1: lockdown has now been lifted and official say the campus
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  Speaker 1: is safe. A French company says it's special undersea search
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  Speaker 1: vessel has detected signals from one of the flight recorders
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  Speaker 1: on egypt Air eight oh four that crashed into the
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  Speaker 1: Mediterranean Sea last month. A company statement does not say
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  Speaker 1: how it knows that the signals were from the egypt
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  Speaker 1: Air black box. The French investigation agency b e A
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  Speaker 1: says it's impossible to determine from the signals whether it
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  Speaker 1: is the flight's data or voice recorder. Donald Trump tops
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  Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton on honesty. According to a new national poll
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  Speaker 1: honest than most politicians. That's compared to fifteen percent for Clinton.
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  Speaker 1: But voters found both presidential candidates less honest than most
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  Speaker 1: other politicians say Clinton and fort say Trump is less honest.
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  Speaker 1: May was a violent month in Chicago. Police say there
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  Speaker 1: were sixty six murders and more than three hundred shootings
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  Speaker 1: in the city last month. Interim Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson
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  Speaker 1: says a city needs to do a better job of
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  Speaker 1: stopping repeat offenders. Some of the parts that we are
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  Speaker 1: getting correct is simply holding these individuals accountable for repeat
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  Speaker 1: them more accountable. So we need our judicial partners in
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  Speaker 1: our state legislators to help the help us hold them accountable.
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  Speaker 1: Johnson says more than sixty people were struck by gunfire
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  Speaker 1: over the Memorial Day weekend. Global News twenty four hours
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  Speaker 1: I'm Rainey Incencio, Charlie and we thank you, and again
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  Speaker 1: recapping stocks to remain higher. S and P five index
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  Speaker 1: up three now to two thousand, ninety nine point sixty seven,
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  Speaker 1: a gain of point one percent. I'm Charlie Pellett and
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  Speaker 1: that's a bloom Bird business flash. You're listening to Taking
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  Speaker 1: Stock with Fox on Bloomberg Radio. If you're US big
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  Speaker 1: three auto manufacturing me, it was not so hot for you.
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  Speaker 1: Declines for Ford and GM. In fact, GM sales down
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  Speaker 1: four down six percent. Christs are up just one percent. However,
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  Speaker 1: if you are the head of Kia Motors America, you
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  Speaker 1: are clapping today. I am sure announcing the best every
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  Speaker 1: male sales on record, nearly sixty three thousand units. It
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  Speaker 1: was highlighted by double digit increases for the Sportage and
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  Speaker 1: Sorrento c u VS. Very happy to welcome to the show.
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  Speaker 1: Now someone who can tell us what's going on, what's
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  Speaker 1: driving this game, and that'd be Michael Sprague's CEO, chief
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  Speaker 1: operating officer for Kia Motors America, and he's joining us
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  Speaker 1: from Irvine, California, this afternoon. Welcome Michael, Thanks for having
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  Speaker 1: me so a good month. You've had a few good months.
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  Speaker 1: What what to what do you attribute the strength of
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  Speaker 1: Kia sales now? I would say we've got the right
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  Speaker 1: um products for the market right now. Uh, that you
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  Speaker 1: mentioned our CUV sales were up in May. Consider are
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  Speaker 1: all new Sportage which just came out the spring head
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  Speaker 1: its best month ever, uh, selling over units and our
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  Speaker 1: Sorrentos see you be sold close to twelve thousand units.
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  Speaker 1: And as we've been talking about over the last year,
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  Speaker 1: consumers are shifting to cuvs, and we've got two of
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  Speaker 1: the newest products in the market. Just to make sure
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  Speaker 1: everbody realizes too that a CUV is a crossover utility vehicle.
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  Speaker 1: So how much do you expect the Kia Hamsters to
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  Speaker 1: add to that? I think this is so fun. As
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  Speaker 1: of Friday they are back after a two year hiatus,
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  Speaker 1: dancing and singing away yet again. Yes, absolutely, we've introduced
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  Speaker 1: them back in two thousand and nine when we introduced
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  Speaker 1: the Soul and which is also a crossover utility vehicle,
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  Speaker 1: and every year our Soul sales have gone up and
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  Speaker 1: uh we had this is now the seventh campaign and
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  Speaker 1: we found a direct link between when we advertised that
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  Speaker 1: with the Hamsters are sold, they go up and so
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  Speaker 1: our dealers were asking for it, consumers were asking for it,
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  Speaker 1: so we thought now was the right time to bring
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  Speaker 1: them back. Well, I've bet a lot of TV networks
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  Speaker 1: were asking for it too. I mean, that's a it's
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  Speaker 1: an ad that would bring in some revenue. But instead
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  Speaker 1: you're going to be showing only on YouTube and some
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  Speaker 1: thirty four thousand movie theaters across the country. Why not television? Well,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we we see television ratings to client viewership
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  Speaker 1: decline over the summer because a lot of reruns come
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  Speaker 1: back and people are out doing other activities and a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people are actually going to the movies, and
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  Speaker 1: particularly between Memorial Day through Labor Day, it's one of
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  Speaker 1: the biggest times for the movie industry, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: people are there to be entertained, and we've got an
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  Speaker 1: ad that we think will definitely connect with consumers as
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  Speaker 1: the preparing to watch the latest movies. Do you think
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  Speaker 1: is this part of a move away? Do you think
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  Speaker 1: Americans viewing habits have changed so much that's just not
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  Speaker 1: worth it to pay the big bucks to advertise on
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  Speaker 1: a big network. No, I would say that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's all everything works um in compliments to each other.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, we still have, as a brand that's only
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  Speaker 1: been in the US for the last twenty years, we
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  Speaker 1: still have to use broadcast television to raise awareness for
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  Speaker 1: the brand um and also you know, YouTube and other
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  Speaker 1: digital means in now cinema as well. All of them
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  Speaker 1: helped compliment and spread the message because consumers are watching
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  Speaker 1: and consuming content in so many different places. Michael Sprague
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  Speaker 1: is the CEO of Kia Motors America. When you see
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  Speaker 1: the sales figures for some for some of the big
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  Speaker 1: auto makers, big auto sellers in the US, this in
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  Speaker 1: the month of May, does that concern you at all?
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  Speaker 1: Do you think there's the question being raised today for
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  Speaker 1: a lot of US is have auto sales peaked well?
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  Speaker 1: You know, And again it goes back to product and
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  Speaker 1: if if you have the right product, then your sales
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  Speaker 1: should continue to be pretty strong. And they mentioned we
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  Speaker 1: believe we've got the right product. Over sixty three percent
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  Speaker 1: of our sales are for cuvs or people movers. So
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  Speaker 1: the sportage current of the soul in the Sedona, uh,
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  Speaker 1: And so I think we're feeling pretty good about the
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  Speaker 1: outlook for the rest of the year. Gas prices are
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  Speaker 1: going up a little bit, not too much of a concern.
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  Speaker 1: At this point, the FED is probably going to raise
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  Speaker 1: the rates. I think we'll be able to manage through that.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the election. I think there's still there's some
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  Speaker 1: people that are holding back a little bit until they
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  Speaker 1: see what happens with the election. But for a brand
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  Speaker 1: like US, that's basically all new since we came over
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  Speaker 1: the last couple of years. You know, people are discovering
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  Speaker 1: us and they're excited by what we're offering. You've just
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  Speaker 1: opened a manufacturing plant in Mexico. Will uh, you'll be
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  Speaker 1: shipping a lot more than autos into the US from Mexico.
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  Speaker 1: And will it save you money to have autos built
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  Speaker 1: in North America. Yes, So this is now our second
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  Speaker 1: production facility in North America. The first one we have
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  Speaker 1: is in West Point, Georgia, where we build the Optima
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  Speaker 1: and Sorrento, which makes up about forty of our US sales.
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  Speaker 1: And so now having this other facility in northern Mexico
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  Speaker 1: does allow us to ship vehicles there to the US,
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  Speaker 1: but it also allows us to ship vehicle to other
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  Speaker 1: parts of Central and South America. So it's from a
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  Speaker 1: strategic standpoint, it's very beneficial to the US. Well, Michael Sprague,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations on your
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  Speaker 1: your sales for May, and and thanks for bringing the
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  Speaker 1: hamsters back for Kia being having the opportunity. Okay, Michael
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  Speaker 1: Sprague is chief operating Officer executive vice president for Kia
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  Speaker 1: Motors America, joining us today from Irvine, California. We're gonna
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  Speaker 1: be taking a look at stocks next. The averages are
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  Speaker 1: slightly higher today. We've got the Dow Jones up about
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  Speaker 1: attempt sixteen points to seventeen thousand, eight three, with SMB
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  Speaker 1: five hundred up three point four, about point two to
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  Speaker 1: the Nastacks at point one five. That's seven points at
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  Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Radio. Stocks are modestly higher today two
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  Speaker 1: weeks to the FED while they raise raids or not,
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  Speaker 1: and are opportunities better overseas for investors. That's coming up
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  Speaker 1: now on Bloomgrigg Radio.