A new Ford plant will increase the US manufacturer's production capacity in China by one third.
American car giant Ford Motor Co has opened its third assembly plant in China's southwestern city of Chongqing. The new $490 million (3.1 billion yuan) assembly plant, built in a joint venture with Changan Automobile Group Co, will increase the automakers manufacturing capacity in the booming market by one third to 600,000 vehicles annually.
The site will be producing six different vehicle types, including the redesigned Focus sedan, but the flexible production line is designed to be quickly adaptable to meet Ford's stated plans to introduce 15 new models to the world's largest automarket by 2015.
According the David Schoch, chairman of Ford China, the plant will help give the car maker the “capacity to realize our aggressive growth plans for the world's largest automarket.” Capitalising on the Asian market is a core element of Ford's global strategy to increase global sales by 50% to 8 million vehicles by 2015. The company also aims to have one third of all deliveries in Asia by 2020.
Despite China's total auto sales rising by only 2.5% in 2011, with a 32% slowing in light vehicle sales, industry experts believe deliveries may increase by up to 8% in 2012.