Fujian Daimler okayed for production, restructuring still pending

Shanghai, March 24 (Gasgoo.com) Yesterday, China Business News learned from relevant sources that the last obstacle to Fujian Daimler’s official operation has been eliminated.

The production license has been officially issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Approval of the “Birth Approval Certificate” has also eliminated obstacles to Beiqi’s restructuring, but that does not mean restructuring has entered the final schedule.

The early pending of the “Birth Approval Certificate” mainly lies in two aspects: one is the low localization rate of the planned production of Vito and Viano Viano series of multi-functional light commercial vehicles. The other is the lack of research and development capability. In addition, Fujian Daimler will also invest 500 million yuan ($87.9 million) to establish an R&D center as required by industry regulators.

For restructuring with Beijing Auto (Beiqi), marketing director of Fujian Daimler, Thomas Gruber had said at last year's Guangzhou Motor Show that Mercedes-Benz is looking for powerful shareholders and partners, and as long as they can help strengthen their competitiveness in China, they will be warmly welcome.

Automotive expert Zhang Zhiyong told reporters that the intractable problems in cross-regional restructuring is none other than the interests of the local government, transaction price and personnel arrangements. For Fujian Daimler, as a brand-new project, the biggest difference of both sides may emerge on the price. However, he said that actually the government had the final say on the restructuring of the automotive industry and the government's ultimate intervention may also accelerate the restructuring.