Geely in line to open Volvo plant in Jiading
- Source: Global Times
- [10:22 July 06 2010]
- Comments
A showroom at a Geely dealership in Shanghai. The automaker purchased Volvo Cars for $1.8 billion in March. Photo: IC
By Li Xiang
Geely Automobile, China's largest privately-owned automaker, will establish a Volvo plant in Ji-ading district, following Geely's acquisition of the Swedish carmaker from General Motors for $1.8 billion on March 28.
Shanghai Geely Zhaoyuan International Investment, a joint venture of Geely and the district's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, is to invest 8.1 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in the project.
Geely Zhaoyuan is also in possession of a 33,600-square-meter plot in Jiading Industrial Zone, Jiading district's Administration of Industry and Commerce told media previously.
Phone calls to Geely's media relations department and its marketing department went unanswered Monday.
An official surnamed Li at the Information Office of Jiading District People's Government told the Global Times Monday that the project is under review by the National Commission of Development and Reform, and that the location of the plant will be known once the review is complete.
Car manufacturing is Jiading district's pillar industry. During the first quarter of 2010, 38 percent of the district's industrial output value of 47.3 billion yuan ($6.98 billion) came from the auto industry, according to figures on the district government's website.
Anting town of Jiading district is at the center of an area that was designated as "Shanghai Auto City" by the municipal government in 2001. As well as being home to a cluster of automakers, including Shanghai Volkswagen and Shanghai Fiat, it is also the location of China's first Formula One racing circuit.
Chinese mainland sales of Volvo cars reached 6,705 in the first five months of this year, up 108 percent compared with the same period of last year. Geely sold 177,673 cars in the first five months of 2010, up 76 percent on the same period of last year, according to figures gathered by the Global Times.
Li Shufu, Geely's chairman of the board, has previously said that Geely's output for 2010 will surpass 1 million vehicles in 2010, while he expects that Volvo Cars will achieve a total output of 150,000 cars by 2015, Shanghai Securities News reported last month.
