Chery plans new plant in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Chery Alado Holdings Sdn Bhd, which holds the rights to import and sell Chery cars, plans to invest up to RM300 million over the next five years on a new assembly plant in the country.


"Should everything go according to plan, the plant would make Malaysia the Southeast Asian hub for Chery's right hand drive models," said chief executive officer Paul Ng.

Currently, the company sells three Chery models - Eastar, Tiggo and A5. Eastar, its most popular model, is assembled by Oriental Assembler, a third party assembler in Johor.

"For a start, the plant will be used to assemble Eastar. But, over time, we hope to assemble Chery cars below 1.8 litre engine capacity. We hope to get the government's support on this," said Ng.

Ng said the company has sent its proposal to the local authorities, including the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and has found a land to set up the plant. He, however, declined to reveal the location.

"We found the land, but we haven't done any feasibility study on it," he said.

The company, which sold 3,200 units of vehicles last year, aims to grow its sales by at least 20 per cent to 3,800-3,900 units this year.

Its total market share in the market has expanded marginally, from 0.4 per cent in June 2009 to 0.5 per cent in June 2011.

Ng said Chery Alado plans to bring in two new models this year, one of which is a pick-up truck. Over the next two to three years, it will bring in another five new models.