Hella, BAIC form lighting partnership in China
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LIPPSTADT, Germany -- German supplier Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. and Chinese automaker Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. are planning a joint venture to produce lighting for passenger vehicles in China.
The companies expect to complete negotiations for a 50-50 joint venture by year end.
Hella's wholly owned Chinese subsidiary, Hella Baifang Automotive Lighting Co., provides lighting for commercial vehicles, and the proposed partnership would allow it to target passenger vehicles, too.
Hella Baifang, founded in 2002, has operations in Beijing and Changchun, and has 400 employees in production and research.
The parent organization, Hella Group, has 3,500 employees at nine locations in China. The company's Chinese operations generated sales of 350 million euros (2.8 billion yuan), or 7 percent of Hella's global sales.
BAIC, of Beijing, has manufacturing joint ventures with Daimler and Hyundai.
Hella ranks No. 51 on the Automotive News Europe list of the top 100 global suppliers with worldwide original-equipment automotive parts sales of $3.5 billion in 2010.
