Kia was founded on December 11, 1944 (when Korea was part of Japan) as a manufacturer of steel tubing and bicycle parts by hand and has operated as one of the country's Chaebols since then. In 1951, Kia began building complete bicycles. In 1952, Kia changed its name from Kyungsung Precision Industry, and later built Honda-licensed small motorcycles (starting in 1957), Mazda-licensed trucks (1962) and cars (1974). The company opened its first integrated automotive assembly plant in 1973,