Gasgoo.com (Shanghai May 21) - Guangzhou Automobile Group's board of directors has approved a new expansion project for its passenger automobile production capacity, China Business News reported today. The project will cost GAC a total of 1.7 billion yuan ($274.42m). At the same time, GAC will also invest 1.15 billion yuan ($185.32m) for various own brand model projects. The two projects will set the manufacturer back 2.85 billion yuan ($459.73m).
GAC's current annual passenger automobile production capacity totals 100,000 units. Following the expansion project, that number will double to 200,000 units by the end of this year.
GAC Group's business returns in the first quarter totaled 3.97 billion yuan ($640.86m), representing year-on-year growth of 64.37 percent. The manufacturer's net profits for the quarter totaled 478 million yuan ($77.16m), which was 46.98 percent less than the amount it reported earning in the first quarter of 2012. Decreasing sales of GAC's Japanese joint ventures was cited as one of the major factors behind the manufacturer's poor profits this past quarter.
