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Sunday 30 January 2011

Automotive

New Fiat Plant Coming to Brazil


SAO PAULO, Brazil — Fiat of Brazil will build a new plant in the country's northeast region, the automaker announced this week. The new plant, near Recife in the state of Pernambuco, will cost about $1.8 billion to build, will be complete in three years and will produce 200,000 units per year, Fiat said.
Planned for the plant is a new, yet-to-be-announced low-cost model designed in Brazil. The car will be aimed at both local and Latin American markets. Some 3,500 direct jobs will be created by the time the plant goes into full operation.
A cornerstone ceremony will be held later this month with the participation of outgoing Brazil President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who turns over his post on January 1 to President-Elect Dilma Rouseff.
Fiat Group's CEO Sergio Marchionne said: "The project to be realized in Pernambuco represents a truly important step for the strategy of Fiat's international reinforcement. Brazil, where we intend to a sales volume of over 1 million vehicles yearly, is a strategic region for our expansion. Our group is also seeking to contribute to Brazil's economic, technological and industrial development, where we are present with auto making for nearly 40 years."
As an initiative of the Pernambuco state government, a training center will be built within the 1.7-square-mile site to provide human resources for the new plant.
The state of Pernambuco had a Willys-Overland/Jeep assembly plant during the 1960s. Ford also has a manufacturing plant in the northeast, where the all-terrain Troller is manufactured. The Jeep-like model was first made by Troller, all-Brazilian automaker since 1997, and then by Ford of Brazil starting in 2007.
Fiat already has a Brazilian manufacturing plant in Betim, built in 1975, and has announced investments in its Brazil facilities totaling $5.9 billion over the next five years, with the Betim plant getting $4.1 billion of that. The Betim plant will get a production boost of 150,000 vehicles per year to total nearly a million units.
The Italian automaker has been on top of the 3.4-million-plus Brazil market for the past eight years, including this year.