A car company owned by Taiwan's richest man is considering building a factory in the mainland port city of Ningbo that would produce at least 200,000 vehicles a year, according to industry sources.
Formosa Automobiles Corp (FAC), set up in October 1998 by Wang Yung-ching, chairman of Formosa Plastics, had been looking at several sites for a plant in China, including Ningbo, Hangzhou and Shenyang, the sources said.
Ningbo, in Zhejiang province, is the favourite because of strong support from the city government, which has offered a site and the necessary approvals.
Mr Wang already has investments there and the city has a deep-water port, with a bridge across Hangzhou Bay linking the city to Shanghai due to be completed by the end of this year.
'This is a very sensitive issue,' an official of Ningbo Economic and Technical Development Zone said. 'Wang Yung-ching has for a long time had a plan to build a car plant in Ningbo. Many things are on the point of completion but it is very sensitive. I cannot reveal the details to the media.'
A spokesman at FAC's head office in Taipei said: 'We have this plan [for a car plant] and the project is at the negotiation stage. The city of Ningbo is pushing hard for it.' He declined to give further details.