FAW shareholders okay $300 mln investment in auto projects

Shanghai, May 30 (Gasgoo.com) Shareholders of China's FAW Car have approved the company's major investment plans in auto projects, the automaker announced at its shareholder meeting yesterday.

Under the plans, FAW Car will invest 2.1 billion yuan ($302 million) to boost its vehicle production capacity and competitiveness. FAW Car will spend 1.4 billion yuan to revamp its assembly lines to produce Mazda Motor Corp's Mazda 6 and its own developed sedan, the B131. The investment would enable it to produce 60,000 Mazda 6 sedans a year by the end of this year and 80,000 B131 models annually in 2010, it said.

It will build a 695.47 million yuan engine plant to double its engine capacity to 90,000 units from 50,000. An Additional investment of 428.8 million yuan will also be made in an auto financing subsidiary, raising its stake to 21.75 percent from 20.70 percent.

The company's net profits doubled to 552.87 million yuan in 2007 from 276.53 million yuan in the previous year, but the profits were not generated by its three own vehicle brands. The own-brand passenger car models Besturn and Red Flag lost 150 million yuan and 50 million yuan respectively in 2007.