Chery Auto breaks ground on Dalian plant

Shanghai, September 29 (Gasgoo.com) Chery Auto and Dalian municipality broke ground yesterday to build a plant for producing Chery vehicles in the coastal city of northeast China, xinhuanet.com reported.

The 4.7 billion yuan ($688 mln) auto project will be built on reclaimed land of Dalian city's free-trade zone (bonded zone). The Chery facility, as Dalian's first auto plant, will produce 200,000 passenger cars annually for domestic and overseas markets.

After Chery's Dalian plant starts operation in mid-2011, more auto-parts manufacturers are expected to set up their factories or outlets in this coastal city, where an industry chain of automobiles and auto parts will come into being. Chery Auto is headquarted in eastern Chinese city of Wuhu, Anhui province.

In recent years, Dalian city has listed the auto industry development, including manufacture of vehicles and related auto parts, as a key driver of its regional economic growth in future.

An auto industry official, who attended the Chery plant's ground-breaking ceremony in Dalian yesterday, urged the new factory to make and sell more cars and expected Dalian to become a world-class auto-parts production base.