BBC Click 01/04/2014
UPDATE 1-Brilliance Auto to invest 439 million into the factory in China.
SHANGHAI January 22 Brilliance Auto, parent of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings, invested 3 billion yuan 439 million in a new factory in northern China, banking on policy support to boost sales of small cars.
The manufacturing plant, with an annual capacity of 150,000 cars designed with engine size of 1 to 6 liters or less, should start operating in June 2010, it announced Thursday.
The risk of Brilliance BMW car is also expanding its shop floor in a factory, also located in the city of Shenyang, the production of new models in the future, a company spokesman told Reuters.
It has no specific information on the extent of the expansion project or new models of cars made at the plant, which currently produces up to 41,000 BMW 3 Series and 5 Series sedans annually.
Growth in China car sales, world's second largest auto market, slowed to a rate in the single digits in 2008 for the first time in at least 10 years as consumption wanes with the slowing economy.
As a result, General Motors GM N and many other automakers have slowed the aggressive expansion this year after reporting of car sales in China much slower in 2008.
In the next two years, the automaker U S will not add new vehicle manufacturing facilities in the country, where its total capacity is about 1 million units, its president Asie Nick Reilly told Reuters in December.
To help buyers to return to showrooms, Beijing recently unveiled a series of policies including halving the auto purchase tax for cars with engine sizes below 1 6 liters.
Brilliance Auto has set up an ambitious target to more than triple its vehicle sales to 1 million in 2012, up from 300,000 in 2007, its chairman Qi Yumin told Reuters in April of 2008.
The new car project will help the automaker achieve its medium-term sales target of 500,000 vehicles in 2010, Qi said in a statement.
Other potential beneficiaries of the whole Beijing stimulus policy, which also includes generous subsidies to owners who trade in their agricultural high-emission vehicles for smaller and fuel efficient clean, are also optimistic about market prospects for 2009.
Pick up truck vehicle manufacturer utility and sports Great Wall Motor Co is a jump of nearly 70 percent in vehicle sales this year, said company director Reuters on Wednesday.
Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd, which makes most compact cars, said earlier this month, there is an increase of 25 percent in car sales this year.
Brilliance, which sells in over 60 countries, mainly in emerging markets, is part of a very exclusive club of Chinese manufacturers who began tapping the mature markets in Europe.
The company made headlines in Europe in 2007 when it received a score of only one star out of five in a crash test for its BS6 sedan by the automobile club ADAC in Germany.
A subsequent crash test showed results that correspond to three stars in the official test after improved car safety standards.
self-developed BS6 and BS4 sedans Brilliance are now available in Germany by HSA Motors Europe, importer company for Europe, a spokesman told Reuters Brilliance compared Fang Yan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong.
Automatically update 1Brilliance invest $ 439 million into the China factory Reuters, update, auto, investment.