Nanjing drops some Chinese suppliers for MG production

Nanjing Automobile is switching to European suppliers from Chinese partsmakers for some components of the MG TF sports car. 
    
The Chinese carmaker has delayed the production start of the two-seat TF at its Longbridge, England, plant until next spring from this autumn, partly because of delivery problems with parts from China. 
     
Nanjing UK spokeswoman Eleanor de la Haye said: “A number of issues have combined to cause this delay.” 
    
One problem is the logistics of shipping parts to Longbridge in central England from Chinese suppliers based 10,000km away. 
    
Parts such as windshields have arrived broken, de la Haye said. “It’s not so much the quality of the parts. The quality of the packaging is not good enough,” she said. 
     
Martin Flynn, Nanjing Automobile Corporation UK’s head of Europe purchasing, said Nanjing has started sourcing some parts from Europe instead of China for several reasons including logistics and lead times. Complying with European legislation and product patents were other reasons. 
    
The changes alter Nanjing’s original strategy. Originally, sourcing low-cost parts from China was a key part of Nanjing’s plan to price the TF competitively.