China's home-brand automaker Chery to move its sales headquarters to Shanghai
16/5/2006 17:15
Chery Automotive Company, China's home-brand automaker, will start to move
its sales headquarters to the country's largest industrial city of Shanghai in
June, China Business News reported today. Meanwhile, the report, quoting
sources with the Anhui-based auto company, said Chery will move part of research
and development operations to Shanghai. "This is part of the company's
strategies to expand eastward,", said a source with Chery, who asked to be
anonymous. "If everything goes on smoothly, the whole move will be completed
at the end of this year," the source said. Qin Lihong, spokesman of Chery's
sales company, said he could not confirm the move. But a sales agency of Chery
in Shanghai confirmed that, saying that "It (the sales company) will soon move
to Shanghai". If that comes true, Chery will become China's first automaker
with its production base in one city, and sales base in another city. The
nine-year-old Chinese carmaker is legend in China's automobile manufacturing as
it has produced a total of 500,000 cars. Unlike many joint ventures in the
Chinese auto industry that depend on foreign technology and sell China-made cars
with overseas brands, Chery depends on its own research and development to turn
out products with proprietary intellectual property rights (IPR). Chery has
been ranked among the 10 biggest automakers in China for years. Its QQ, a
mini-car model, enjoys good sales in China costing less than 40,000 yuan
(US$5,000) a unit. In 2005, Chery exported a record 18,000 cars, the most
among China's car manufacturers. Currently, Chery cars are sold in 38 countries
outside China.
Xinhua
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