SAIC Motor's new base in Nanjing starts production

Shanghai, March 18 (Gasgoo.com) China's auto giant SAIC Motor yesterday launched its new production base in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu province, to speed up the company's own-brand vehicle development, Shanghai Daily reported.

The 2.57 billion yuan ($377 mln) new plant, located in Nanjing's Pukou district, will focus on the production of SAIC's mid-class vehicles under the Roewe and MG brands as well as its small-capacity engines. The first Roewe 350 sedan rolled off the assembly line at the plant yesterday.

The Pukou plant, with an annual capacity of 200,000 vehicles and 250,000 engines, is the third plant for SAIC Motor's self-developed vehicles after Lingang in Shanghai and Yizheng in Jiangsu, and will boost the company's own-brand vehicle production capacity to around 500,000 units.

"The Roewe 350 is strategically important for our own-brand vehicles and in generating more profits," said SAIC Chairman Hu Maoyuan. The car has a 1.5-liter engine developed by SAIC and more high-tech equipment to help compete with the GM Excelle, Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla.

SAIC's vehicle sales are mostly achieved by its joint ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen AG. Sales of SAIC's own-brand vehicles jumped by 153% to 90,000 units last year and are expected to double to 180,000 units this year with the launch of four new models.

The Pukou plant was previously owned by Nanjing Auto, a smaller rival acquired by SAIC in late 2007 along with the Nanjing company's newly bought MG Rover brand. SAIC plans to invest 10 billion yuan in facilities in the city by 2015, said a Nanjing-based official.

SAIC Motor, with its Shanghai GM, Shanghai VW and SAIC-GM-Wuling ventures, aims to sell 3 million vehicles this year, up from last year's 2.7 million. Its February sales rose 45% year on year to 248,000 vehicles, after 307,384 units in January (up 90%).