Located in Yancheng of east China's Jiangsu province, the company is a joint venture between Kia Motor Corp. and Dongfeng Motor Co. and Jiangsu Yueda Co.

 

Under the loan agreement signed in June, the loan will be used in part to support the technical upgrade of its second production line in Yancheng, says Bank of China, a state-owned commercial bank.

 

Upon completion of the technical upgrade project in 2011, Dongfeng Yueda Kia would be able to increase its capacity to 430,000 units from now 280,000 units.

 

The rest of the loan is intended to support the introduction of two new models -- the Kia Forte subcompact sedan and the Kia Soul SUV. The Forte was already launched in China on June 19 while the Soul is due to hit the market in September, according to the company.

 

Dongfeng Yueda Kia runs two production lines at its Yangcheng plant. Besides the Forte, it builds the Rio, Carnival, Sportage, Optima, Cerato. Its total sales in the first five months were 69,937 units, up 13 percent from a year earlier, according to Automotive Resources Asia, a unit of J.D. Power.