Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's top carmaker, is considering building an automobile manufacturing plant in Russia as it seeks ways to grab a bigger slice of the booming auto market in the nation, a company official said Friday.

"We are reviewing a plan to build a local manufacturing plant, but no decision has been made yet," said the official, who asked not to be named, in response to a newspaper report earlier in the day. The official declined to give details.

The Maeil Business newspaper, citing a high-ranking official at Hyundai, reported the carmaker made a "final decision" to build the manufacturing plant in Russia for US$400 million.

Hyundai is likely to begin construction of the plant, which will have a capacity of 100,000 vehicles a year, in St. Petersburg or Nizhegorod province from early next year, according to the report.

Hyundai has an auto assembly plant in Russia with a capacity of 50,000 units.

If the plant under consideration is built, it would be Hyundai's seventh one overseas.

Hyundai is aggressively expanding its overseas manufacturing plants to offset damages from labor strikes at home and reduce risks from the strong local currency.

Hyundai has plants in the United States, China, India and Turkey and is building another plant in the Czech Republic.

For the first seven months of this year, Hyundai's auto sales in Russia rose 20 percent to 67,349 units, according to company data.

SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Yonhap)