Chery Automobile Co’s branch company in Brazil launched its first off-tool sample car manufactured by its local factory on Sunday. “It marks a major progress of Chery’s international strategy and shows our confidence in the Brazilian market,” said Du Weiqiang, vice-president of Chery International.

Chery Automobile, one of the largest automobile manufacturers in China, initiated construction of its local factory in 2012 with a total investment of $400 million and a construction area of 400,000 square meters. It is located in the city of Jacarei in Sao Paulo State.

The factory will officially start production this August and will be Chery’s only self-owned factory in the world. “The estimated producing capability of Chery Brazil’s factory can reach 50,000 (vehicles) per year. Latin America occupies more than 30 percent of Chery’s international market and I have very strong confidence in its future development,” said Du.

The factory will provide about 800 jobs by the end of 2014 and about 40 Chinese engineers have come to Brazil to help train local employees. “More than 70 percent of Chery Brazil’s employees are local Brazilians and the percentage is expected to reach 90 percent in the future,” said Peng Jian, president of Chery Brazil.

“Local employees are the core power of Chery Brazil’s development in this country. Our goal is to combine the Chinese culture, Brazilian culture and Chery culture together and stimulate our development,” said Peng.

According to Peng, the factory will be the production base for Latin America with its products exported to other regional countries including Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.

Chery entered the Brazilian market in 2009 and has built 75 4S car shops across the country. “With the new factory, we hope to enlarge our local market share to 3 percent by 2018,” Peng said.

fanzhang@chinadailyusa.com

A guest from Colombia takes photos of the first car produced by Chery's Brazil factory on June 22 near Sao Paulo. [Zhang Fan/China Daily]