China’s BAIC Details Assembly Facility in South Africa

Chinese carmaker Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. plans to open its 11 billion-rand ($759 million) assembly plant in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in early 2018.

BAIC describes the project, which was announced in May, as China’s single largest investment in Africa. It also will be the South African auto industry’s largest greenfield investment in 40 years.

The factory will employ 2,500 workers and have initial capacity to make 50,000 vehicles per year for sale throughout Africa. Output eventually will be doubled in a second phase of construction.

BAIC opened a small minibus assembly plant in South Africa three years ago. The company also has been assembling pickup trucks in Nairobi, Kenya, for more than five years.

The new facility will be operated as a joint venture with South Africa’s state-owned Industrial Development Corp. Construction will begin in December, about six months later than originally planned.

BAIC indicated in May that the new factory will make cars, SUVs and vans. In China, the company produces its own brands of cars, trucks and buses and makes passenger vehicles through alliances with Daimler and Hyundai.