LONGBRIDGE BACK ON TRACK IN JUNE

26-03-2007

Birmingham's historic Longbridge car factory will resume production under its new Chinese owners in late May or early June. Nanjing Automobile Corporation are expected to make an official announcement tomorrow.

More than 6,000 jobs were lost when MG Rover went into administration on May 2005. Since them much of the plant has been exportedto Nanjing in a massive “lift and shift” operation.

This year NAC plan to make 13,000 MG7's (based on the old upmarket Rover 75) and a further 7,000 of the MG TF sports cars.

Birmingham will see production of the roadsters (ie the MG TF) although these will also be made in China. Comments from the company earlier this year suggested that Longbridge might be restricted to making right-hand drive models for the British market only, employing perhaps a couple of hundred workers.

Longbridge will also host a new Centre of Excellence for Research And Development.

Birmingham Council leader Mike Whitby was in China at the weekend confirming final details with NAC and Communist Party officials.

He said: “They confirmed to me that production will commence in Nanjing on Tuesday with a projected start date of early June for manufacturing at Longbridge.

“In addition, they confirmed that the success of the Nanjing Automotive Company's experience in Birmingham will affect whether other industries in the Jiangsu province invest both in the Midlands and the UK as a whole.

“We have been working hard behind the scenes with NAC to help them achieve their aim of bringing car manufacturing back to Longbridge.

“We will now see that work come to fruition, meaning jobs for people across Birmingham, and amongst the wider region who will supply the new plant.”