Automotive Belt Forms along China's Yangtze River

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, January 22, 2003

Automotive Belt Forms along China's Yangtze River

From Chongqing Municipality in the upper reaches down to Shanghai at the estuary, an important automotive belt is forming along China's 6,400-km-long Yangtze River.

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From Chongqing Municipality in the upper reaches down to Shanghai at the estuary, an important automotive belt is forming along China's 6,400-km-long Yangtze River.

Chang'an Ford Automobile Co. Ltd. in Chongqing, a fifty-fifty joint venture between Chongqing-based Chang'an Automobile (Group) Corporation and US-based Ford Motor Co., began car production on Saturday.

Established in April 2001, the joint venture involves an initial investment of 98 million US dollars. It has a designed capacity of 150,000 cars per year, with initial production scale set at 50,000 units a year.

Chang'an Automobile (Group) Corporation itself reported an output of 328,747 cars and minivans in 2002, up 45.85 percent over the previous year.

In downstream Hubei Province, Dongfeng Motor Corporation has emerged as one of China's three largest auto makers. The company produced a total of 418,400 motor vehicles and sold 415,700 in 2002, up 54.74 percent and 53.05 percent respectively over the previous year.

Shanghai is now home to two leading car makers in China -- Shanghai Volkswagen Corporation and Shanghai GM Company Ltd.

A joint venture established by the German Volkswagen, Shanghai Volkswagen Corporation has become China's largest car producer with 278,000 units of production in 2002.

Shanghai GM Company Ltd., an automobile joint venture established by the US General Motors, produced 110,763 cars in 2002.

Dotted between these vehicle manufacturers, a large number of automobile part and component suppliers have sprung up along the Yangtze River, which provides cheap transport for both parts and finished products.

According to the China Automotive Industry Association, output value and sales of the automotive industry along the Yangtze Rivernow each accounts for more than 50 percent of the national totals.

Hu Shuhua, professor of the Automotive Engineering Institute of Wuhan Science and Technology University, predicted that demand on China's automotive market would grow rapidly in the coming years. This would further greatly push forward development of the automotive belt along the Yangtze River and strengthen its role in the world automotive industry.

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