Chinese automaker Great Wall to buy GM's Thailand plant

SHIJIAZHUANG -- China's leading sport utility vehicles (SUV) and pickup maker Great Wall Motors on Monday said it will purchase General Motors' Rayong car production facility in Thailand.

According to a binding agreement inked by the two companies, the transaction and handover, which include a car plant and a power assembly plant in Rayong currently operated by the Detroit carmaker, are expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

As a regional manufacturing center, the Rayong plant has produced nearly 1.4 million cars since it went operational in 2000.

It will be the Great Wall's 11th full-process complete vehicle manufacturing base globally, the third outside China, following a plant in Russia's Tula region which was put into operation in June 2019 and another one in Talegaon, India, bought from General Motors earlier this year.

Liu Xiangshang, the Great Wall's global strategy vice president, said the purchase will boost the company's development in the Thailand and ASEAN markets and help export products to other ASEAN nations and countries like Australia.

"The ASEAN automotive market is developing with great prospects and potential," Liu said. "Our investment will create more jobs for the locals, improve their skills and stimulate supporting, R&D and related industries there."

Headquartered in the city of Baoding, northern China's Hebei province, the company owns several SUV and car brands like Haval, Great Wall, WEY and ORA. With more than 500 overseas branches, its products have been exported to over 60 countries and regions including those along the Belt and Road.