Auto maker to expand business
( 2003-07-16 08:43) (China Daily)
First Automotive Works Corp (FAW), China's flagship automaker, announced yesterday that it will increase its annual output to 2 million vehicles over the next five to eight years.
The company, based in Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin Province, said in a statement that it will increase the output by four times during the period from more than 400,000 units in 2001.
FAW unveiled the ambitious target yesterday to mark its 50th anniversary.
The company now has an annual production capacity of 1 million units.
During the first half of this year, FAW reported record high sales of 402,595 units.
The company has produced a total of 5.4 million vehicles since 1953.
Yesterday saw ground-breaking ceremonies for FAW's three new manufacturing bases.
The company said the first will be a 300,000-unit production base in Changchun for FAW Car Co Ltd, its domestically-listed arm.
FAW Car now makes its home-grown Red Flag model and Mazda's M6 under a technical licensing deal with the Japanese car maker.
The second base will be for FAW Truck Co Ltd, its truck division which produces the Jiefang (Chinese for liberation) trucks.
The new truck base will have an annual capacity of 200,000 units in Changchun.
Third, FAW VW, the company's car joint venture with German Volkswagen Group, will also build a new 330,000-unit plant in Changchun with a total investment of 1 billion euros (US$1.14 billion).
The joint venture will have a total annual capacity of 660,000 units by 2005.
FAW VW yesterday launched the Golf A4 hatchback car in its existing plant in Changchun.
The joint venture also produces Volkswagen Jetta and Bora, and Audi A6 and A4.
Volkswagen, the leader in China's passenger car market, said it will invest another 6 billion euros (US$6.84 billion) in China over the next five years to expand its capacity and produce new models in China.
The German auto giant, which also has a joint venture in Shanghai, plans to double its annual capacity to 1.6 million units in China over the next five years.
Volkswagen sold 324,000 cars in China during the first half of this year, an increase of 52 per cent from the same period of last year.
FAW yesterday also set up a new wholly-owned subsidiary, FAW Fengyue Co Ltd, which will start technical licensing production of Toyota's Land Cruiser sport utility vehicles (SUVs) later this year.
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