SHENYANG, May 19 -- BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA) put into into operation a new assembly plant in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province on Friday.

The plant in Dadong District, involving a total investment of 7.6 billion yuan (1.11 billion U.S. dollars), boosts the BBA's total annual capacity to 450,000 units a year.

The city of Shenyang currently accommodates two whole-vehicle assembly plants, an engine plant and a R&D center, making it one of the largest global smart production bases of the BMW group.

The new assembly plant builds upon the German industrial 4.0 concept and has incorporated sophisticated technologies such as VR, augmented manufacturing, laser scanning and bug data analysis in the whole production process.

China has become the largest single market for BMW automotive vehicles. The production by BBA in Shenyang exceeded 300,000 units last year, about one eighth of BMW's global production.

BBA was established in Shenyang in 2003. The initial capacity was several thousand units a year. It has grown to 316,000 units in 2016. BBA has also created 16,000 jobs for the locality.