Tengzhong to make Hummer vehicles in China

Shanghai, June 8 (Gasgoo.com) Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. has put forth its bid to General Motors to acquire the U.S auto giant's Hummer unit for $300 million, and will invest about 8 billion yuan ($1.17 mln) in Hummer's Chinese production, said sina.com today.

Tengzhong is a little-known Chinese manufacturer of dump trucks and industrial machinery. The company will spend about $300 million to buy the Hummer brand, technologies, R&D, production line and sales network," excluding Hummer's any military versions and their related technologies and sales.

According to the tentative deal signed by GM and Tengzhong last week, the Hummer will continue its U.S. production of the H2 and H3 models and will not shut the American plants, which are expected to retain more than 3,000 jobs for U.S employees.

In its plans for the future development, Tengzhong said it will invest as much as 8 billion yuan in the project of locally producing Hummer vehicles in China. The fund will come from Tengzhong's finance, the local government's injection and bank loans.

Over the past few months, the company has been in talks with several cities' local governments in Sichuan province over the siting of its Hummer manufacturing base for Chinese production. An initial agreement is reportedly emerging.

The ambitious move of Tengzhong to acquire GM's Hummer unit is awaiting China's central government's seal of approval, which will have to clear the hurdles of many Chinese regulators.