Great Wall opens plant in Bulgaria
Great Wall Motor Co. opened its assembly plant in Bulgaria this week. The plant, in the northern town of Lovech, is a joint venture between Great Wall and Bulgaria's Litex Motors Co.
It will assemble vehicles with semi-knockdown, or SKD, kits and later with complete knockdown, or CKD, kits shipped from China.
The first model to be built there is Great Wall's Voleex compact sedan, to be followed by the Wingle pickup and the Haval SUV.
The plant, which employs 120 people, initially will build as many as 50,000 vehicles a year. Those vehicles will be sold in Bulgaria and other eastern European countries.
The Bulgarian plant will help Great Wall expand its niche in Europe. The company exports vehicles from China to Italy, and it has a CKD plant in Russia.
Elsewhere, Great Wall has more than 10 SKD and CKD plants in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Great Wall, of Baoding in north China's Hebei province, sold more than 487,000 vehicles last year. Of those, 83,000 vehicles were exported, according to the automaker.
