Chinese carmaker Nanjing Automobile Corporation on Tuesday breathed new life into Longbridge, the central England car factory which was mothballed when Britain's MG Rover went bankrupt in 2005.
NAC held a special ceremony at Longbridge to mark the re-opening of the plant, which in its heyday produced 10,000 cars per week.
“The UK is home to MG and it has a profound affection for MG,” NAC chief executive Yu Jian Wei said at the ceremony.
“MG is the pride of the British people. It has a glorious past.”
He added: “Longbridge has an irreplaceable role in the MG project — it is front line of our internationalisation strategy. This is the re-birth of MG.”
Some 6,000 jobs were lost when historic British car manufacturer collapsed more than two years ago. The site now employs 130 workers — but NAC plans to increase the workforce to 250 people by the end of 2007.
Nanjing, which bought MG Rover's assets for 53 million pounds in July 2005, said Tuesday it will build MG TF sports cars at the Longbridge plant in Birmingham. Models are due to roll off the production line later this year.
As part of a colourful opening ceremony, three pre-production TF sports cars, which were mostly manufactured at Longbridge, were driven off amid a cavalcade of MG cars.
The ceremony was also attended by Mr Liang Baohua, governor of Jiangsu Provincial Government, the home province of NAC.
The Unite trade union welcomed Tuesday's ceremony but called for further jobs to be created at Longbridge.
“Longbridge has a long and proud history within the automotive industry and Nanjing's ownership will be another important chapter so we wish it every success,” said Eric McDonald, Unite's regional industrial organiser.
“The restarting of car production will be welcome but we continue to press Nanjing to honour their stated objective of creating 1,200 jobs.
“There are still many ex-MG Rover workers who are unemployed and hoping to return to Longbridge. We are looking forward to a positive relationship with Nanjing.”
The majority of car production would be carried out at Longbridge, with some parts manufactured in China and Europe, according to Wei. A research centre will also be created at the Birmingham plant.
