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MGs to Move to Kaliningrad
Russia’s Avtotor plant is in talks with Chinese Nanjing Automobile to set up an assembly line for MG cars in Kaliningrad in what could be Avtotor’s second Chinese export project. The car maker has recently announced that its joint plant with China’s Chery would be exporting half of its production to Europe.
A high-placed source of Kommersant in the car industry reported that a delegation of Nanjing Automobile and its president had visited Avtotor’s facilities two weeks earlier and signed a memorandum, declaring intentions to set up a joint production in Kaliningrad. Details of the projects are to be settled by this fall when the business plan and market research are ready.
Avtotor’s Executive Director Alexander Sorokin confirmed the reports, saying that “Nanjing Automobile is extremely interest in exporting MGs to Europe.” The official declined to give further comment.
A Kommersant source familiar with the situation said that the MG assembly at Avtotor would amount to at least 25,000 cars which would include MG7 hardtops. The project would see the CKD assembly.
British MG Rover, which owned MG and Rover trade marks, went bankrupt in 2005. Nanjing Automobile bought the company’s production assets for $86 million, keeping the right to use the MG brand and selling the Rover brand to Ford.
The MG deal is not the first Chinese project of Avtotor. The Russian car maker earlier announced that its joint plant with China’s Chery would be exporting half of its production to Europe.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 14, 2007
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