French casting specialist Montupet has signed an agreement with the administrative committee of the Changzhou National High-tech District under which the supplier will invest $US29.98m to develop cylinder heads and other auto parts.


This will be Montupet’s first production base in China. The project will be carried out in two phases, the first of which is to produce and develop precision castings and raw castings. The supplier is dealing with regulatory procedures and expects to start construction “in the near future”.


Montupet is over a century old and produces 4m units a year in Europe and America. Sales were EUR460m in 2006 and expected at around EUR520m for 2007. Customers include Renault, Volkswagen, Citroen and other major automobile manufacturers.


Changzhou High-tech District is also home to Magna International’s Power Assembly project and research and development centre; a Visteon automobile lighting system factory; Japanese tyre maker Bridgestone’s shock absorber and other parts facility; Leoni’s auto wiring production base; and a Mitsubishi Electric JV with Taiwan Shihlin Electric & Engineering making auto electric motors, generators, distributor caps, fuel injection systems and other products.


China’s Dongfeng Automobile has a pickup truck plant there while other group plants make components.

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