Great Wall Motor broke ground on the Tianjin plant, its second largest passenger vehicle production base in China after the Baoding base, the Beijing Times reported.
The new plant will mainly produce mid- and high-end sedans as well as SUVs with a planned capacity of 800,000 units per year.
Construction on the first phase of the plant will be completed in March 2011, with a capacity of 250,000 units. Great Wall has the same capacity requirement for the second phase, construction of which will be completed in August 2012.
The Chinese automaker will mainly produce Great Wall C30, C50, C70 and other of its mid-to-high end models and high-end SUV models like Hover H6 in the Tianjin base.
Great Wall President Wei Jianjun earlier said the reason the company chose Tianjin as its production base is due to the city's strategic positioning in Northern China. Tianjin Port is the largest in Northern China trading with more than 300 ports in 160 countries around the globe, which will facilitate its auto export business.
The combined capacity of Great Wall's plants in the Baoding and Tianjin base is expected to reach 2 million units in 2015, with sales increasing to 1.8 million units.
