German carmaker Volkswagen’s Chinese joint venture Shanghai Volkswagen (SVW) has opened a new vehicle manufacturing plant at Urumqi in Western China.
Claimed to be the first plant in Xinjiang region and the Group's 102nd plant globally, the new facility has been built with the initial phase of investment of about $325m.
The new Urumqi plant has already started semi knocked-down (SKD) vehicle assembly of Volkswagen Santana sedan and would have an annual production capacity of up to 50,000 vehicles starting from 2014 following the commissioning of the plant's own paint shop and body shop.
Volkswagen Group China is also planning to introduce the dual training system at Urumqi based on the model implemented at German plants.
Currently operating three vehicle plants in Shanghai, Nanjing and Yizheng, Shanghai-Volkswagen is also building a new plant in Changsha in the southern part of Central China, which is scheduled for completion by late 2015.
The German carmaker, together with Chinese partners SAIC and FAW, is also constructing five more plants in China in 2013 and over the following few years, which would increase the overall production capacity to four million units from the existing 2.6 million per year.
