Dongfeng Nissan JV to expand new PV plant

Shanghai, July 29 (Gasgoo.com) China's third-biggest automaker Dongfeng Motor Group said its joint venture with Nissan Motor would spend 5 billion yuan ($732 million) to expand a new passenger vehicle plant in China to meet rising car demand, media reported today.

The factory, based in southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, will have an annual capacity of 240,000 vehicles, the automaker said yesterday. The expansion, due to be completed in 2012, will raise the Dongfeng Nissan venture's total capacity to 700,000 vehicles a year. Dongfeng said the expansion will safeguard the mid- and long-term business plan of its joint venture.

In the first half this year Dongfeng Nissan, which operates a plant in Guangzhou and another in Hubei, eastern China, sold 225,073 vehicles, up 41% from a year earlier and is likely to meet the annual sales target of 388,000 units in advance. It sold 350,000 vehicles in 2008, up 29% from the previous year.

Dongfeng-Nissan's parent Dongfeng Motor Co, formed in 2003, is the first joint venture in China to offer a whole range of products from trucks, buses and light commercial vehicles to passenger vehicles.

Nissan's overall China sales (of Nissan and Infiniti brands) jumped 19% to 332,181 units in the first half, against a its 23% global decline, making China the second largest Nissan market after the U.S., where first-half sales of Nissan and Infiniti brands hit 347,744 units.