China's Geely Automobile Holdings plans to build a $500 million car assembly plant in Mexico within five years, Chinese media reported today.
By 2013, Geely will itself invest $269 million in the plant with an initial capacity of 120,000 units annually. Another 12 Chinese second-tier suppliers will spend $231 million further on the project.

Parent company Geely Holding Group is reported to have signed a cooperation memorandum with a Mexican company in June to jointly build an industrial park including a car plant with an annual production capacity of 300,000 units.

"It will have a total capacity of 300,000 cars a year and service all of North, South and Central Americas," Geely's chairman Li Shufu told Reuters.

Geely sold 121,690 vehicles in the first half of this year, up 11.8% from one year earlier. Sales of Geely KingKong and Vision models increased by 65.83% and 220.99% respectively, significantly exceeding its own sales target of that period.