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GM and SAIC open new China car manufacturing plant
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - General Motors and its China partner SAIC Motor opened a new car manufacturing plant in northeast China on Wednesday with an annual production capacity of 150,000 units.
The plant, where mass production of Chevrolet Cruze compact cars is scheduled to start in the second quarter next year, is the second facility owned jointly by GM and SAIC in the city of Shenyang, the U.S. auto maker said in a statement.
Their first plant in the city, making Buick GL8 and Buick FirstLand executive wagons, has a capacity of 50,000 units, it said.
China, where GM also manufactures commercial vehicles with SAIC, is a bright spot for the troubled automaker which is awaiting a bailout from the U.S. government to avoid bankruptcy.
"The opening of this plant is part of GM's ongoing pledge to grow our operations in China," said Kevin Wale, president and managing director of the GM China Group.
GM's China sales grew 12.7 percent in the first half of the year from a year earlier to 590,126 units.
It expects its annual sales growth in China to be around 10 to 15 percent over the next five years, GM's Asia Pacific president Nick Reilly told reporters in September.
(Reporting by Fang Yan, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
