Hyundai Mobis Co said on Thursday China would account for half of its international unit's sales within five years, rising from the current 10 percent.

The firm, the auto parts affiliate of South Korea's top car maker, Hyundai Motor Co Ltd, defines international sales as those not pertaining to Hyundai Motor or Kia Motors Corp, also an affiliate of Hyundai Motor.

Mobis, which began selling to Chinese carmakers only last year, hopes to take advantage of one of the fastest growing automobile markets.

Our management asks me to reach 50 percent of sales from the Chinese market, Jimmy Park, the general manager of Hyundai Mobis' international business team, told Reuters on the sidelines of an auto exhibition in the Chinese capital.

Within five years, he said. Otherwise I will be fired.

China is not only an important market for the company, it is also an important manufacturing base.

From this year Mobis began to ship brakes and transmissions produced in China to a Kia factory in Slovakia.

The company, which posted third quarter net profit up about 32 percent to 183 billion won, has invested about $150 million in six factories across China.

In the past few years output from those factories, which supply the group's operations in both China and Korea, has grown 30-40 percent, but will slow to about half that pace in the coming years, said Park.

We are focusing on the China market, he said.

(US$=7.40 yuan)

South Korea China