Chery, Italian distributor may build cars at shuttered Fiat plant in Sicily
Fiat S.p.A.'s assembly plant in Sicily may be used in the future to produce cars for Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co.
In 2009, Fiat announced that its 41-year-old factory near Palermo would cease production at the end of this year.
But Fiat is stopping production at the Termini Imerese plant a month earlier than planned due to low customer orders.
After receiving a number of offers, the Italian government has chosen DR Motor Co. to take over the plant. DR Motor has said it will assemble Chery's cars at the factory, but has not disclosed the start of production or likely production volumes.
DR Motor, which is part of the Di Risio dealer group, imports and sells Chinese vehicles in Italy as a domestic brand. Most of its cars come from Chery.
The Termini plant currently produces the Lancia Ypsilon three-door minicar. Fiat will shut down Termini's assembly lines on Nov. 23, according to unions that met with Fiat officials.
Fiat has said high logistics costs led to its decision to stop building cars at Termini. Production there costs about 700 euros (6,000 yuan) more per car than in other plants because most of the parts are shipped to the factory from mainland Italy.
