Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corp. is trying to change the struggling operations of Nanjing Fiat Automobile Co., Ltd. in a bid to benefit more from the cooperation with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (Group) (SAIC).

Yu Jiufeng (transliterated) acted as CEO and general manager of Nanjing Fiat on August 17 and Jing Boqing later succeeded Duan Jianjun as business director.

Nanjing Automobile promised that it would offer supports for the ailing venture, which has little expense on marketing in the period from January to April 2007. Nanjing Fiat, Jing stressed, can obtain support for car models from its parent companies only after driving up its sales.

Earlier, SAIC signed a cooperation letter of intent with Yuejin Motor Group, the parent of Nanjing Automobile. The letter is targeted at the comprehensive cooperation between SAIC and Nangjing Automobile, two auto heavyweights in the Yangtze River Delta.

The two signers will jointly set up a team to work on the feasibility and scheme for the overall cooperation in fields like complete vehicle, auto parts, auto service and trading, as well as the assets regrouping. However, both sides gave no response to how they would join hands in their proprietary brands in the future, a question attracting the most attention currently, although they stressed that they would not give up their independent brands.

Talks between SAIC and Nanjing Automobile has almost finished and some related proposals have been submitted to top executives, disclosed a source. Although the mode for their tie- up has not been decided, the two parties are both striving for more interests.

Nanjing Fiat was established in April 1999 as a joint venture between Italian automotive giant Fiat Automobiles SpA and Nanjing Automobile. The venture incurred a big loss of CNY 300 million in 2004, and its annual turnout has been hovering between 30,000 and 40,000 units in recent years.

Fiat would be likely to end its cooperation with Nanjing Automobile but it delayed to do it because of the negotiation with independent-branded automaker Chery Automobile Co., Ltd., analysts guessed.

Currently, Nanjing Fiat, with a capacity of 100,000 units, has sold only about 2,000 units a month. It needs to upgrade its production lines and produce more new models to make full use of its capacity. The venture will probably become a production base of the MG car model or SAIC's self-developed car models, guessed insiders from Nanjing Automobile when it achieves a turnaround.

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