Ford breaks ground on $300 mln plant in Nanchang

Ford Motor Co. and its Chinese partner Jiangling Motors Corp., a maker of commercial vehicles, began building a $300 million assembly plant in Nanchang, China, Ford said today in an e-mailed release.

The plant will begin production at the end of 2012 with capacity to build a combined 300,000 vehicles a year for Ford, the second-biggest U.S. carmaker, and Jiangling Motors, the release said, giving no further details.

The factory will be Jiangling's largest. Ford, which owns 30 percent of the Chinese carmaker, already operates two joint plants with Jiangling, with annual capacities of 50,000 and 160,000 vehicles.