BEIJING - China's fourth largest automaker, Chang'an Automobile Group, said that it has put off its previous plan to transfer a passenger car production certificate from its joint venture Changhe-Suzuki to a new Chang'an Mazda joint venture.

Zou Wenchao, the company's president, said that it will retain all operations of Changhe-Suzuki at least until the Chang'an agreement with its Japanese partner Suzuki Motor Corp has been signed, taking over the latter's total stake in Changhe-Suzuki.

"Suzuki has strong a strong wish to withdraw from Changhe-Suzuki and Chang'an's board has achieved agreement with them. We are currently in final talks with Suzuki to acquire its assets in Changhe-Suzuki," said Zou.

The Chongqing based automaker had earlier this year raised a plan to transfer one of the two passenger car production certificates from Changhe-Suzuki to its new joint venture with Mazda Motor Corp. The idea triggered intense conflict between Changhe and Chang'an.

The workers in the company's Jingdezhen manufacturing base went on strike from Jan 13 to 17, fighting for the production certificate transfer as they worried about a possible production reduction.

"Actually, transferring one of our two production certificates is the best way of optimizing our resources inside the group. Their worry thet there will be no car production is groundless," said Zou. "It won't effect their production, as Changhe still has another production certificate for the passenger car."

In November 2009, Chang'an signed an agreement with the Aviation Industry Corp of China, a State-owned aircraft maker, to take over its main auto assets including Changhe, the joint venture Changhe Suzuki and others.

After two years' restructuring, Chang'an helped Changhe to make a profit of 1.18 million yuan last year after suffering a loss of more than 200 million yuan in 2010.

"We have set a target for Changhe to make a profit of 100 million in 2012," said Zou. "In 2012 and 2013, Changhe will launch eight new models, including three sedans and five minivans."

In January, Changhe produced more than 17,000 vehicle units, with 16,058 units having been sold.

According to Zou, to further develop its Changhe brand, Chang'an has put aside 1.7 billion yuan to relocate a new factory to Hefei, Anhui province, as well as invested 150 million yuan in its production site in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, to expand the manufacturing capacity from 100,000 units to 160,000 units.

In 2011, Chang'an sold 2.01 million vehicles in the Chinese market. It aims to increase sales to more than 2.23 million units this year.