Through its automotive lighting division, Italian OEM supplier Magneti Marelli (Corbetta; www.magnetimarelli.com) has agreed to form a 50:50 joint venture with Hubei Huazhong Photoelectric Science and Technology Ltd. The Chinese company is a subsidiary of China South Industries (CSI, Beijing; www.csg.com.cn), a diverse industrial group with annual sales of EUR 36 bn.

The new company, Hubei Huazhong Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting Co. Ltd, will invest some EUR 40m in production facilities scheduled to start up in 2015 at Xiaogan in Hubei province. At full run, some 800 employees will turn out 5m units per year. A major customer will be CSI affiliate China Changan Automotive Group, which has local joint ventures with leading international carmakers such as Ford, Mazda, Suzuki, PSA and Mitsubishi.

Included in the jv’s portfolio will be halogen, Xenon and LED headlamps with adaptive front lighting systems, tail lights with bulb lamps, LEDs, light guides and solutions for both front and rear fog lamps. Hubei Huazhong Photoelectric already supplies lighting components and systems to the Chinese auto industry.

Magneti Marelli CEO Eugenio Razelli said the pact with CSI further strengthens its industrial presence in China, where it made its first investment in 1996. The Italian company’s automotive lighting arm already operates two large production facilities in the People’s Republic, including a plant at Wuhu started up in 2005 and a plant at Foshan inaugurated in May of this year – see Plasteurope.com of 04.06.2013.