Great Wall Motors (GWM) signs agreement to purchase GM's Thailand plant

Great Wall Motors (GWM) is all set to expand its global footprint. It has just signed an agreement with General Motors to purchase its manufacturing facility in Rayong, Thailand. This deal comes after Great Wall Motors recently purchased the General Motors factory in Talegaon on the outskirts of Pune and GWM will look to integrate both plants as feeder units to each other. GWM have signed the agreement with General Motors Thailand and GM Powertrain Thailand that are the legal owners of this factory. Pending Thai government regulatory approvals, GWM looks to start production at Rayong by the end of this financial year.

Speaking on this occasion, GWM global strategy vice president, Mr. Liu Xiangshang said: “The global strategy of Great Wall Motors has begun to take shape after more than 10 years of development. In the past two years, through the export model transformation and upgrades, Great Wall Motors has accelerated the pace of its strategic global rollout. In 2019, Great Wall Motors’ Tula plant in Russia successfully started production, and the company also reached an agreement with GM to acquire its Talegaon Plant in India in early 2020.”

Mr. Julian Blissett, senior vice president - Operations, GM International, said “The company had taken the difficult decision to cease manufacturing operations in Thailand after undertaking a detailed analysis of the business case to allocate a future product program to the site. With globally-recognised efficiency and achieving key quality benchmarks, the team at Rayong has delivered world-class vehicles for domestic and export markets for two decades.” He further stated, “On behalf of GM, I thank the Thailand team for their outstanding contribution to our company. I also want to thank the Thai Government for its long-standing support of our operations and for sustaining a highly competitive business environment in the market.”

With the acquisition of this plant from General Motors, the Chinese manufacturer Great Wall Motors will look to capitalise on the ASEAN market. This will also benefit Indian operations via Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Thailand that will enable cost efficiencies between both plants.