MG's Longbridge plant reopens

Source: Technology Digital

Date :29/05/2007 11:12:49

Nanjing Automobile's first British-made MG TF sports cars will roll off the Longbridge assembly line today, ending the plant's two-year period of inactivity.

The restart is expected to create up to 300 jobs - a fraction of the 6,500 who were employed by MG Rover until April 2005. It is not at all certain that Nanjing will be able to honlur their commitment to creating 1,200 jobs at Longbridge,, though the Unite union continues to press the new owners on this.

China is expected to be the biggest market for the cars in the long term, Zhang Xin, general manager of the Nanjing Auto unit making the cars, said last month, though for the first few years more than half may be sold outside of China. So far, 98 British dealerships have expressed interest in selling MGs Britain, as have a number in Germany, Australia and several British Commonwealth countries.

China became a net exporter of cars for the first time in 2005 and its 2006 exports nearly doubled to 300,000 vehicles. But Chinese companies have so far had little success in making volume sales to major, developed markets.