China’s Great Wall Motors launches car plant construction in Russia’s Tula region

TULA, September 25. /TASS/. Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors on Friday officially starts building its car plant in the Tula region, in central European Russia, the company’s press service has said. "Today, a ceremony will be held devoted to the launch of construction of a line of the Great Wall Motor Company in the Uzlovaya industrial park [in Tula region]," the press service said. The Chinese company originally planned to invest 18 billion rubles in the project, but in the spring of 2015 the automaker announced that the sum would be increased to 26 billion rubles ($393.45 million at current exchange rate). Four Haval models - H2, H6 Coupe, H8 and seven-seat H9 - will be assembled at the plant, with the total manufacturing capacity up to 150,000 vehicles per year. Some 2,500 jobs will be created and the plant is scheduled to be put into operation in 2017. Under an agreement signed last year, up to 60 percent of components for the future plant will be manufactured at the Uzlovaya industrial park, the largest in central Russia with the area of more than 2,500 hectares. Great Wall Motors Limited is one of the largest automakers in China. The holding has more than 30 subsidiary companies that manufacture cars, trucks and buses, and also carry out scientific researches and engineering development. Read more