CHONGQING, China – GKN Driveline is continuing its expansion in China with a groundbreaking for the expansion of its production facilities in Chongqing.
GKN Chongqing Driveshaft (GDC) is investing $43.9 million to expand the plant, which will cover an area of nearly 12,000 square meters when construction is completed in 2014. GKN says the expansion will allow localization of CVJ system production for OEMs in the Chongqing area. Production is expected to start in July 2014 and when completed, the plant will have capacity for more than 1 million vehicle sets per year.
"Chongqing is the automotive manufacturing center for Southwest China, with fast-growing customer demand and market forecasts of 2 million cars by 2015," said Andy Reynolds Smith, CEO, GKN Automotive. "Our rapidly increasing China footprint allows us to better serve our customers such as ChangAn-Ford, creating more efficiency in supply chains with localized supply and continued high levels of service. This builds on our existing highly successful operational base of eight plants."
GDC, established in August 2006, is a joint venture shared by GKN, Shanghai GKN Driveshaft Co. Ltd. (SDS) and China ChangAn Automobile Group. Its main products are CVJ shafts. Customers include ChangAn-Ford, ChangAn-Mazda, ChangAn-Suzuki, ChangAn, JAC, Great Wall, BAIC Motor and SGMW.
