2012 BMW Brilliance Tiexi Plant Grand Opening - Production

Opening of the production site Tiexi. The BMW Group takes a further step in consistently extending its global production strategy by opening the new vehicle plant Tiexi in Shenyang together with its partner, Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. The Tiexi plant will start out by producing the compact Sports Activity Vehicle BMW X1 for the Chinese car market; soon, however, the new BMW 3 Series Sedan Long Wheelbase will also roll off the assembly line. The site is located in the west of Shenyang, a city in the Chinese province of Liaoning. It has been allocated for an annual production capacity of up to 100,000 vehicles. This means that the total production volume for BMW vehicles in China will be doubled from the numbers currently covered by the Dadong plant in North-East Shenyang. Current planning already allows for the option to expand capacities at both plants to up to 300,000 units annually. The present expansion of production capacities is geared toward meeting the continuously rising demand for premium vehicles of the BMW brand in the growing Chinese market. The joint venture BMW Brilliance Automotive has invested a total of 1 billion euros into building the new Tiexi plant and expanding the existing Dadong plant (completed in late 2011). The opening of the Tiexi plant and the expansion of production capacities will entail the creation of over 2,000 new jobs in the years to come, in addition to the about 8,000 jobs that have previously been created in Shenyang. In addition, the location stands to benefit from the close cooperation with universities concerning the training of specialist workers as well as with local suppliers. The BMW Group and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd. have furthermore started to produce four-cylinder powertrains at a new engine plant in Shenyang. Investment in the construction of the new site amounted to approx. 50 million euros. The engine plant, which has a workforce of 600 associates, provides powertrains to both the Dadong and Tiexi vehicle plants to be fitted in the BMW vehicles produced at the two sites. Strengthening the global production network. The new Tiexi plant is an important step in further strengthening the BMW Group‟s global production network, which at present comprises production sites in 14 different countries. The decision to establish a second plant in China is rooted in the „production follows the market‟ principle that the BMW Group applies to achieve a balanced ratio between demand and production capacities in the regions Europe, America and Asia. Further capacity increases in all regions of the BMW Group‟s global production network are planned to meet the rising demand. At present, investment in the BMW Group‟s German plants, which beat the magic mark of one million units produced for the first time in 2011, amounts to two billion euros, earmarked for the modernization and expansion of production facilities. In reaction to the continuing rise in demand on the American continent in 2012, production capacities at BMW‟s Spartanburg plant will be stepped up to about 350,000 units annually by 2014. And in China, a market with a particularly dynamic sales growth of presently 36.6 percent over the first quarter of 2012, the opening of the Tiexi plant makes a significant contribution to optimizing the global balance between production and market.