Beiqi Foton Motor Co. Ltd, the world's largest commercial vehicle maker by sales volume, plans to set up a manufacturing plant in India involving an investment of `1,676 crore over five years.
Beijing headquartered Foton signed a memorandum of under standing with the Maharashtra government on Friday. Foton, the first Chinese company to enter the Indian market independently, aims to set up a full scale manufacturing plant near Pune, its first outside its home country.
The unit will start commercial production in 2013 and make light, medium and heavy duty commercial vehicles, said Foton officials, declining to elaborate.
“This is the first major inves ment by a Chinese company in Maharashtra”, state chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said. “It will potentially create 1,000 jobs”.
The government will allot close to 200 acres for the first phase of the project, said K. Shivaji, chief executive, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corp. The location of the unit is to be finalized, he said. Helped by buoyant economic growth and benign interest rates, truck and bus sales in India expanded 26% to 676,000 units in FY11, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. Foton's strategy for the Indian market will be focused on offering value for money products without compromising on quality, said R. Shankar, the company's executive vice president for its India operations.
(Source-: livemint)
