The 10,000 square meter plant is JCS's first plant outside Japan. It has capacity to produce 800,000 evaporators, 300,000 condensers and 300,000 heater cores annually. It is expected to reach full capacity with a staff of 300 by 2012. 

 

The new plant will mainly supply systems for Mazda cars in China. It will also export a small volume of products to Mazda Motor Corp.'s operations in Japan and Southeast Asia. 

 

According to Annouk Ruffo Leduc, who is a spokesperson for Visteon Corp, exports of heat exchangers from the plant to Japan have already started. Exports to Thailand, meanwhile, should start later this year.

 

Visteon is one of JCS's three shareholders. The other two are Mazda and Panasonic Corp.

 

Mazda makes the Mazda 2 at the Nanjing plant of Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co., a joint venture between Chongqing Changan Automobile Co., Ford Motors and Mazda.

 

The Mazda 3 is made at Changan Ford Mazda's plant in Chongqing.

 

A third model, the Mazda 6, is assembled at the Changchun plant of China FAW Group Corp. under a technical cooperation agreement between FAW and Mazda.

 

A total of 64,061 Mazda cars were sold in China in the first five months of this year, up 12 percent year-on-year, according to Automotive Resources Asia, a division of J.D. Power.