A management reshuffle at the top at Nanjing Fiat, the 50-50 joint venture between Nanjing Auto and Fiat Group Automobiles, has seen Mr Yu Jiufeng replacing Andrew Humberstone as the CEO and General Manager. Humberstone will stay on to act for the time being as Vice-President. The appointment of Jiufeng, the firm's Purchasing Director, is seen by analysts as a tightening of grip on the troubled company by its Chinese partner. However it has been reported this week that no final decision on the future of the joint venture has been taken.

Nanjing Fiat has struggled to make any real impact on the Chinese new car market which is surging ahead year-on-year, and many of Fiat's major European rivals have already established a strong local presence. The Nanjing Fiat joint venture builds the Palio, Palio Weekend, Siena and Perla models. The Perla is based on the Siena, and when the larger and more opulent vehicle was introduced last summer it became the first model to be developed entirely in China by Nanjing Fiat.

With the troubles on-going at Nanjing Fiat, both parties have recently been looking to new partnerships elsewhere. NAC signed a letter of intent at the end of last month to explore a merger with their biggest domestic rival, SAIC. This would signify a major consolidation in the Chinese car industry and if it goes ahead will create a dominant market player. The two firms own a mix of the assets that formerly belonged to the now-defunct MG-Rover carmaker, the former building a range of cars under the MG banner, while the latter assembles the Rover 75 under the Roewe banner. NAC's parent company, Yuejin Motor Group, purchased most of the assets of the liquidated MG-Rover in 2005 and its focus has been on absorbing these and re-organising this company through its Nanjing Yuejin division. A major logistical exercise saw production lines shifted from Longbridge near Birmingham to China, while ambitious plans to re-start production of the MG TF sports car in the UK as well as commissioning a brand-new factory in Oklahoma (USA) are now underway.
 

Earlier this summer Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne openly expressed his dissatisfaction with NAC and the lack of focus he perceives that is being given to Nanjing Fiat, believing too much attention was being paid to the MG operation.

At present, Yuejin Motor Group possesses an annual production capacity of 180,000 vehicles of various models and has three major vehicle production bases: Nanjing Yuejin, Nanjing Iveco and Nanjing Fiat. The products cover more than 400 types of models, including passenger cars, light duty trucks, light duty buses, cross country vehicles, small-sized passenger/cargo transportation vehicles, special-purpose vehicles as well as various types of chasses. Yuejin Motor Group is now exporting cars and components to many countries and regions worldwide such as Argentina, South Africa, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Djibouti, Tanzania, Cyprus, Togo, Italy and Spain. In addition, it has obtained experience in establishing outside China several SKD/CKD assembly plants for trucks and minibuses.

Meanwhile Fiat Group Automobiles has also been looking elsewhere to further its Chinese ambitions. It announced a new joint car making venture project with another local carmaker, this time Chery Global, at the beginning of this month. The initial deal will see Alfa Romeo models, including the Alfa 147 and 159, being built in China for the first time, and destined for domestic sale. Undisclosed Fiat models are also planned, with production coming on stream in 2009. This builds on a contract signed by the two last November which will see Chery supplying Fiat with 100,000 1.6- and 1.6-litre petrol engines per year.