Czech car manufacturer Skoda Auto is
to start production in China, an official said Monday.
The company's spokesman Jaroslav Cerny said
that Skoda signed a deal with Shanghai Volkswagen on Monday to
start producing its Octavia model in China in 2007.
Skoda Auto is owned by German manufacturer Volkswagen
AG.
The company is planning to produce some 40,000 vehicles
in the Shanghai plant in 2007 and hopes to increase the annual
production to about 80,000 cars in the following years.
Skoda Auto currently sells some 2,000 cars in China
each year.
"At the beginning, the cars will go to the Chinese
market, but we hope we could later export them also to the neighboring
countries," Cerny said.
Skoda Auto is the country's largest and most
profitable exporter. It sold 451,675 cars of its three models,
Fabia, Octavia and Superb, in some 90 countries in 2004. Apart
from its three plants in the Czech Republic, the company also
has plants in Ukraine and India.
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