Nissan President: Production Plans in China Just Waiting for Official Go-aheadJapan's second-ranked carmaker, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. is waiting for the green light from Beijing to set up local production with a Chinese partner, Nissan president Carlos Ghosn said Monday."We are no longer in the canvassing stage, but the project ratification stage," Ghosn told reporters. "As soon as we get the go-ahead from the various authorities concerned, we will make an announcement," he said, adding that he did not know when to expect official approval. "We have some pretty clear ideas about the partnership," Ghosn said, while declining to identify either the Japanese carmaker's potential local partner or even the region of China where a production plant could be built. At the announcement of Nissan's earnings results for the year to March last week, Ghosn said that the group's strategic plan was to set up production facilities in China. He added he believed that would happen within a relatively short timeframe. Compared to their European and American competitors such as General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen and Citroen, Japanese carmakers have been slow to set up production plants in China for economic as much as political reasons. The Japanese number one, Toyota Motor Corp. announced in spring last year that it had agreed to set up a joint venture with Tianjin Xiali, a subsidiary of the Tianjin Automotive Industrial Group, making 30,000 compact cars a year based on the Vitz/Yaris platform. The deal was an extension of the existing partnership agreement between Tianjin Xiali and Daihatsu, the Japanese minicar manufacturer which is part of the Toyota group. Honda Motor Co. and Suzuki Motor Corp. are already in China, with Honda stepping in to take over the production capacity of French carmaker Peugeot after the spectacular failure of its Cantonese joint venture with the Guanzhou Automobile Group, part of the giant Dongfeng industrial group. Guangzhou Honda Automobile Co. produced some 32,000 models of the Accord in 2000, and is aiming to roll out 50,000 cars this year. Nissan's own manufacturing presence in China to date is modest. Since 1995, the company has been making light pick-ups in a joint-venture with Zhengzhou Light Automobile Works, also part of Dongfeng. Around 5,000 vehicles were sold last year. A similar number of Nissan Bluebird passenger cars are also assembled from kits (CKD) and sold badged as Fengshen, a Nissan spokesman said. |
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