Automotive Lighting, the Magneti Marelli company devoted to the automotive lighting sector, and Changchun Fudi Equipment Technology Development Co. LTD. (FUDI), a Chinese investment company active in the automotive components industry, have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture (JV) company to produce and sell automotive lighting systems for the automotive market.
Magneti Marelli and FUDI have been partners in a JV manufacturing powertrain components since 2012.
According to the agreement, Automotive Lighting Reutlingen GmbH will own 60 percent of the share capital of the new company, Changchun Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting System Co. Ltd., while FUDI will hold the remaining 40 percent.
The industrial facilities of the JV will be located in the Xin Xing Industrial Park of the Economic and Technological Development Zone of Changchun, Jilin Province, and will be aimed at supplying carmakers in the Northeast of China. The JV will finish the footprint of automotive lighting in China, covering the region North of the Yellow River, which is one of the strategic areas for the automotive sector in the country, where both leading Chinese automotive companies and international carmakers operating in China have located their plants. In particular, German premium OEMs have a significant presence in the area.
The business scope of the JV will be to produce automotive lighting systems (headlamps and rear lamps) based on halogen, xenon and high-end LED technologies. The plant will be set up within the first quarter of 2016, while the production is expected to start in the first quarter of 2017. Built over a land area of 48,000-square-meters (516,667.7-square-feet), the plant will employ a workforce of about 800 employees at its peak volume.
“The new JV with FUDI aims to be set in the northern part of the country,” said Ermanno Ferrari, CEO of Automotive Lighting. “[It] allows Automotive Lighting to have the ‘ideal’ footprint in a key country for automotive like China, covering all the strategic areas in which the most important carmakers are located with their facilities. In fact, our objective is being logistically and technically near them, in order to support their business growth in the best way possible.”
Sylvain Dubois, country manager of Magneti Marelli China, said, “This new factory in Changchun represents our fourth lighting plant in the country and marks an important milestone in the expansion of Automotive Lighting in China. This will allow us to support our strategic customers located in this region in a better way.”
The Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting presence in the Chinese market started in 2005 with the opening of the first 100-percent owned plant in Wuhu. In order to follow the Chinese automotive market growth, two more plants were inaugurated: in February 2012, the second wholly-owned plant in Foshan (South China), and in May 2013 the new plant in Xiaogan resulting from the JV with China South Industries. Moreover, the company’s Automotive Lighting Headquarters and Research Centre in China are based in Shanghai.
