JAC to build first plant in Brazil

HEFEI — Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co Ltd, or JAC, will build its first plant in Brazil with an investment of nearly 200 million reals ($61 million), according to a report by Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday.

The report said the announcement was made on Monday after JAC Brazil President Sergio Habib presented the project during a meeting with Marconi Perillo, governor of Goias state, which lies near Brazil’s capital city Brasilia.

It is reported that the plant will be based in Goias and will have the capacity to manufacture up to 35,000 vehicles annually. The project is expected to take two years to complete and provide around 820 jobs for local people, according to Xinhua.

A JAC executive in charge of the public relations said the automaker does seek to build a plant in Brazil.

“But as I was told by JAC International, a subsidiary of JAC responsible for overseas business, we haven’t reached a clear plan to say when to begin the construction and when to put it into operation”, said the executive, who requested anonymity.

Headquartered in Hefei, the capital of Anhui province, JAC exported 36,172 vehicles in the first half of this year — nearly 51 percent more than the same period of the previous year — to overseas markets including Brazil.

“The local sales should always come first before we build any plant in any country,” said An Jin, president of JAC, in an earlier interview.

Xinhua quoted Habib as saying JAC expects a 40 percent growth in its vehicle sales in Brazil this year, far above the market’s average growth of 11 percent.

The company didn’t provide information of how many vehicles have been sold in Brazil this year.