Great Wall is considering buying the Ford and Mercedes plant to have production options as it prepares to sell its cars in Brazil
Considered one of the largest automakers in China, Great Wall is interested in buying the Mercedes-Benz and Ford car factory in Brazil. According to the Reuters news agency, the brand plans to expand operations to markets beyond Asia and sees good opportunities in South America. See also: A new dairy product factory will be built in the state of Ceará. R$ 50 million will be invested and new jobs will be created
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Chinese automaker plans to buy factory in Brazil
The company plans to build a new plant or buy one of the two that were deactivated this year, the Ford plant in Camaçari (BA) or the Mercedes-Benz plant in Iracemápolis (SP). Sources familiar with the company's negotiations confirmed that talks are indeed taking place, but still at a preliminary stage. Great Wall has not yet defined which local manufacturing strategy it will adopt in Brazil, but sales of vehicles imported from China are expected to start in early 2022.
On Friday, the Bloomberg agency reported that Great Wall is in talks with the Daimler group (owner of Mercedes) about the possible acquisition of the Iracemápolis factory closed last December, where the manufacturer said it had invested BRL 600 million. A spokesman for the German company told Bloomberg that the company continues to explore different options for the plant, without saying which ones.
The other Great Wall option is in Bahia and is perhaps too big and expensive for the Chinese company's pretensions. After Ford announced in January the closure of its factories in Brazil, the government of Bahia created a working group to attract potential buyers to the Camaçari factory and confirmed that it made contact with the Chinese embassy in the country to encourage the interest of Chinese automakers.
Old interest in opening a unit in Brazil
Great Wall's interest in setting up a factory in Brazil, the company's largest market, South America, is due to the fact that it is one of the regions of the world included in the company's international expansion plans. In the region, the manufacturer already maintains a small assembly line in Ecuador and sells its cars in several countries, such as Uruguay, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Chile – the latter where it currently has its highest regional volume, with 2,4 vehicles sold and revenues of US$ 44 million in 2020.
During an event in China in September 2012, Great Wall confirmed to Automotive Business that it was studying ways to produce its cars in Brazil, as at the time the surcharge on imported vehicles created by Inovar-Auto practically made any operation using imports exclusively unfeasible.
See also: Ford will have to pay BRL 2,5 billion in compensation to the government of Bahia after closing its factory
Ford will have to pay compensation of approximately R$ 2,5 billion to the government of the state of Bahia, after closing the Camaçari factory, in the metropolitan region of Salvador. The assembler has received tax incentives since the beginning of its operations in the State, in 2001. The agreement should be disclosed in the next few days.
According to CNN, there is a possibility that Ford will maintain a factory wing in Bahia to produce parts for the aftermarket, but the project has not yet been confirmed. Ford also told the broadcaster that it has received several contacts from those interested in acquiring the factory's facilities, but nothing conclusive.
