Mitsubishi aims to triple China sales by 2007
Jeff Green Bloomberg News
Monday, January 6, 2003
iht.com
DETROIT Mitsubishi Motors Corp. set a goal of selling 300,000 cars in China by 2007, building the units in partners' plants in Taiwan and a venture in Beijing.
Mitsubishi will use plants owned by Taiwan-based China Motor Co., in which it has a 15 percent stake, and Southeast Motor Co. and Chinese joint venture Beijing Jeep Corp. to reach the goal, Steven Torok, Mitsubishi's executive vice president in charge of non- Japanese sales, said Sunday in an interview at the Detroit Auto show.
The company will sell about 100,000 cars and trucks in China this year, he said.
Mitsubishi is trying to expand in markets outside the United States to decrease its reliance on that market for profits, he said. Mitsubishi's U.S. sales account for all of the fourth-largest Japanese automaker's profits, Pierre Gagnon, chief executive of the company's North American sales unit, said in November.
China Motor, Taiwan's largest vehicle maker, will start making Lancer passenger cars as early as the first quarter at Southeast Motor, a venture with the government of Fujian, Torok said. The venture may sell 100,000 vehicles next year, compared with a projected 47,000 this year in China, one of the world's fastest-growing auto markets.
Southeast Motor, which makes Mitsubishi Freeca and Delica minivans, said in July it planned to expand annual capacity to 100,000 units within two years from 60,000.
Mitsubishi is working with DaimlerChrysler AG, which owns 37 percent of Mitsubishi, and Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. through the Beijing Jeep Corp. to have Montero Sport and Outlander models built in China and distributed, Torok said. Also Sunday, Rolf Eckrodt, Mitsubishi's chief executive, said the company was on track make its second straight full-year profit this year and would concentrate more on its car business.
"We are on track on meet our targets" in the year ending March 2003, Eckrodt said at the auto show. "And we want to focus on the passenger car business."
Mitsubishi has been spinning off businesses to focus on car operations, accelerating job cuts and lowering material costs to return to profitability and trim debt.
Mitsubishi on Monday spun off its truck and bus business into a wholly owned subsidiary to focus its resources on passenger cars.
Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune |
