Magneti Marelli has inaugurated a new plant, which will manufacture suspension systems, at Guangzhou, China. The plant, which is located near the Planvim Industrial Park, Nansha District, will also produce pedal systems.

The plant is spread across 27,000 square metres with 17,000 square metres occupied by  production facilities. Overall production capacity is for supply of suspension systems to about 220,000 vehicles a year, and pedal boxes for about 100,000 vehicles a year. The plant will start with a team of about 60 employees.

According to Sylvain Dubois, Country Manager of Magneti Marelli China, “Over the last 10 years, we have invested in new space, know-how, and new centres for research and development in order to support our clients. With the inauguration of this plant in Guangzhou, Magneti Marelli China integrates the activities related to suspension systems and plastic components and modules, also to support directly FCA Group brands in the region”.

Antonio Ferrara, CEO of Magneti Marelli Suspension Systems, said: “The opening of the Nansha plant is an important result for the suspension business area in terms of the standardisation of processes and the application of advanced production technologies. In terms of standardisation, we are, for example, now able to replicate the same type and quality of process in Europe, in Brazil and in China, three key production areas in the automotive world. In terms of technology, we have furthermore implemented an evolved welding technique which allows us to obtain traceability for every single product.

Magneti Marelli has been present in China since 1996 with production plants and R&D/engineering Centres in Shanghai (new headquarters inaugurated in May 2016, SAGW Powertrain JV), Wuhu (Automotive Lighting and Powertrain), Guangzhou (Electronic Systems, Suspension Systems e Plastic Components and Modules Automotive), Changsha (exhaust systems), Hangzhou (Shock absorbers in JV with Wanxiang Qianchao Company), Changchun (Powertrain in JV with FUDI), Hefei (exhaust systems with JAC and Lingdatang), Foshan (Automotive Lighting), and Xiaogan in the province of Hubei (China South Industries Group Corporation - CSI Automotive Lighting JV).