Tata Group seeking auto-parts partners in China

Shanghai, May 7 (Gasgoo.com) India's Tata Group hopes to forge in-depth cooperation in the auto-parts segment with Dongfeng Motor and other Chinese automakers, said Lin Xinhua, general engineer of Tata's China business at a recent auto industry forum in Beijing.

As the biggest carmaker in India, Tata Group produced 700,000 vehicles in 2007. The cooperation between Tata Group and Chinese automotive companies stay currently in the auto-parts sourcing business, and central China's Hubei province, where Dongfeng Motor is based, is expected to have a Tata sourcing center.

An auto-parts manufacturing subsidiary of Tata Group will start operation in Nanjing (capital of east China's Jiangsu province) in May and will supply Shanghai GM and Changan Ford Mazda with plastic products for interior decoration, such as airholes, exhaust pipes, and ventilation grilles, and meanwhile provide the auto parts to GM Europe.

Tata will start in October to make the world's cheapest sedan NANO, a four-door, five-seat, rear-wheel-drive light car, which will sell at a price of 1 100,000 rupees ($2,500 or 17,400 yuan), over 10,000 yuan cheaper than the Chery QQ and other cheap sedans in the current Chinese auto market.

Sales of Tata Group in China more than doubled in the fiscal year ended March to $650 million, while the conglomerate's procurement in the country surged by about 300% to $1.6 billion. Tata's businesses in China include steel, IT and consultancy services, auto parts and tea exports.