Dongfeng Motor Co, the 50-50 joint venture between China's third-largest vehicle manufacturer, Dongfeng, and Nissan, will open a new manufacturing plant in China to ride the wave of the country's soaring sedan demand, the company said yesterday at a ceremony to mark the sale of its 100,000th Bluebird car in the country.

The new plant will be located in Guangdong Province, one of China's auto manufacturing hubs along with Shanghai and Changchun in northeastern Jilin Province.

Sales of Bluebird, priced at more than 200,000 yuan (US$24,096) per unit, reached 53,043 units in the first 10 months of this year, the company revealed yesterday in Shanghai.

The company sold 23,431 Bluebirds in 2002, making it the best selling mid-sized luxury sedan in China.

It sold 17,620 of the cars in 2001.

"The supply of our cars can't satisfy the demand of the Chinese market, so a new plant is in urgent need to expand annual capacity to 200,000 units at the end of next year," Ren Yong, deputy director of the firm's passenger vehicle division, said.

Company executives said that more Nissan models will be introduced into China. The local production of the Teana is scheduled for 2004, for example.

As a late comer to China's vehicle market, the third-largest vehicle maker in Japan also intends to launch a truck firm with Dongfeng, aiming to sell vehicles in all segments of the market.

China's private car sales have been gearing in recent years. Now truck production is heating up.

Dongfeng executives said that more information on the issue will be announced in Beijing next week.

"Low labor cost here will give our products a competitive edge compared with other international brands," according to Ren.

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