Mazda and Ford moved quickly on Monday to deny weekend media reports that they plan to dismantle their three-way joint venture with Changan Automobile by 2012.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The reports, which first appeared in Japan’s Nikkei business daily, were dismissed by Ford in China as “speculation” and by Mazda, which has a 15% stake in the JV, as “conjecture.”
A Changan spokesman also said the three partners had a good relationship and had never discussed a possible break-up.
The Nikkei reported that Mazda wanted to end the partnership so that it could make decisions about production volumes independently.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that Mazda and Ford were discussing ways to split their shared manufacturing bases in the southwestern city of Chongqing, which would be run by Ford and Changan, and the eastern city of Nanjing, which would be run by Mazda and Changan, into separate entities.
Mazda said on Monday that it was moving production of the 3 [Axela in Japan] from Chongqing to Nanjing, where it already makes the 2 [Demio], to improve 3 production and allow Ford more production at Chongjing; the decision had nothing to do with restructuring the JV.
