JATCO (Guangzhou) Automatic Transmission Ltd. (JGZ), an overseas affiliate of JATCO Ltd (President & CEO Shigeo Ishida, Headquartered in Fuji City, Shizuoka, Japan, Capital: 29.9353 billion yen), the manufacturer of automatic and continuously variable transmissions (AT/CVT) launched full-fledged production of CVTs at its new plant in Guangzhou, and held an inauguration ceremony on September 28.

The new plant is JATCO's second overseas production base after the plant in Mexico. It manufactures belt CVTs for 2.0~2.5 liter class vehicles. The amount invested in the new plant is 4 billion yen (around 3 hundred million RMB), and its annual production capacity is 140,000 units. At the moment, employees are about 250, and there are plans to increase that number in the future.

The inauguration ceremony held on September 28 was attended by the Vice Chairman of the Guangzhou Development District Administrative Committee Shi Qizhu, and the Consul General of Japan in Guangzhou Kazuhiro Tajiri, as well as relevant officials from the development district, suppliers, and others. The total number of participants in the inauguration ceremony exceeded 200 people.

In February 2007, JATCO announced the launch of local production in China. In April 2007, the company established JGZ and proceeded with preparations for the launch of the new factory. The preparations were successfully completed, and now the factory will go into full-scale operation.

The CVTs produced at JGZ will be used in the Nissan Teana, Sylphy, X-TRAIL, Qashqai, and other models that are produced at Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd. (DFL), The new plant has adopted the JATCO Excellent Production System (JEPS), the global production system that is applied in all JATCO's plants in Japan and Mexico, and will maintain high quality of the products based on international standards.

"CVTs, such as those produced at JGZ, significantly contribute to the improvement of vehicle fuel efficiency and the reduction of CO2 emissions, and are highly praised as an important environmental technology," said Shigeo Ishida, President & CEO, at the inauguration ceremony. "JATCO commits to contribute to the future development of Guangzhou and China in general through environment protection measures based on dissemination of products, as well as through attracting investments and creating jobs."

President of JGZ Takashi Kamijukkoku stated, "we were able to launch the most advanced CVT plant with the latest production technology ahead of the others in Chinese market. Through promoting highly capable local talent, we would like to establish a strong local operation, which delivers the equal productivity, quality and cost to the other JATCO plants in Japan and Mexico."

JATCO began manufacturing belt CVTs in 1997, and since then has maintained its position as the industry leader through consistent pioneering efforts to cultivate and develop global markets with some world-first technologies. In 2008, JATCO held a 43% share of the global production of CVT, the highest share in the industry.

^*Note: Amounts in RMB are calculated for the convenience of the reader at the exchange rate of 13.625 yen per RMB 1 as of September 1, 2009.