Nissan Motor has signed a deal with Tan Chong Motors, based in Myanmar, for the local assembly of Nissan Sunny models. Production is planned to start in 2015 at a new facility in the Bago region of the country that Tan Chong will build. No investment figure was made available at this point. It will be the first global vehicle manufacturing project in the country since the market there reopened in 2011.
The plant will cover 324,000 square metres, making it the biggest vehicle manufacturing plant in the country and the first in the Bago region. It will have an output capacity of 10,000 units at full production and assembly will be from complete knockdown (CKD) kits supplied from surrounding production hubs in Thailand, India, China and Japan, according to a spokesperson for Nissan.
“We are confident that Myanmar will be the next growth driver for the Indo-China region,” said Tan Chong Group executive deputy chairman, Dato Tan Heng Chew. “Together with Nissan, our extensive experience in the manufacturing and distribution of Nissan vehicles will contribute towards the expansion of the Nissan brand in Myanmar. Moreover, the industry leading expertise and experience of both Nissan and the Tan Chong Group in the automotive sector will definitely assist the further growth of this country."
Tan Chong Group is the exclusive distributor for Nissan vehicles in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. The two companies have been working together since 1957 and have sold 700,000 Nissan vehicles in the region since the late 1970s.
Tan Chong assembles and distributes vehicles as well as providing of aftersales services and related financial services.