Motor giant Ford expands Chinese link

Jul 19 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal

MOTOR giant Ford has announced an expansion of its partnership with one of China's biggest car makers.

The US company is to work with Jiangling Motors to build a new £196m plant which from 2012 will turn out 300,000 vehicles a year..

Ford already owns 30% of Jiangling which currently operates two joint plants with the firm churning out 210,000 vehicles a year between them.

It is just the latest in a series of moves by Western carmakers to move into the fastest growing global market since the economic downturn has hit sales elsewhere.

This month, French car giant Peugeot Citroen finalised a joint venture with Changan Automotive to build cars in China.

Ford has already seen a strong growth in its domestic sales this year and in April reported its highest quarterly profit for six years when its earnings for the first three months of 2010 shot to £1.37bn from £940m a year earlier.