BYD’s future site in Bahia: company revealed that it will build residential buildings for employees — Foto: Divulgação
BYD, the Chinese automaker making an inroad in Brazil, unveiled Monday a significant boost in investment for its Camaçari plant, in Bahia. The company now expects to invest R$5.5 billion, compared to the previous announcement of R$3 billion. Stella Li, the company’s global vice president, told Bahia Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues that these additional resources will be allocated to the area previously occupied by Ford.
“We want to accelerate the construction works to soon have the first cars produced in Bahia,” Ms. Li told Mr. Rodrigues during the governor’s visit to the site. The company released the information through a note later.
The company also revealed that it will build residential buildings for employees. The company adopts a similar model at its headquarters in Shenzhen, China. These buildings will be 3.5 kilometers from the factory, in an area of 81,000 square meters, and will have a capacity for 4,200 people.
The company revealed the decision in early January and raised the initial number of jobs in Camaçari to 10,000 from 5,000. The announcement was made during the Brazil-China Meeting held by Valor and Lide with institutional support from O Globo and CBN.
The company thus accelerates plans to produce the first cars in Brazil by the end of this year. The first vehicles will be assembled with component kits imported from China. BYD’s CEO in Brazil, Tyler Li, told Valor earlier this month the plan is for cars manufactured from 2025 onwards to have at least 25% of components produced in Brazil. To achieve this share, BYD wants to attract Chinese suppliers to the region.
According to the company, the operation will start with an installed capacity of 150,000 vehicles per year. But it could reach 300,000 units in the second stage of the investment.
BYD paid the government of Bahia R$287.8 million for the land and factory that until last year belonged to Ford. The contract was signed on March 5, during a ceremony that marked the beginning of the construction works. The total area is 4.6 million square meters.
The company said on Monday that in the first phase of the works, there will be 26 new facilities including production warehouses, test tracks, and other structures that will occupy 1 million square meters. According to BYD, it will be virtually an entirely new factory.
The government of Bahia is now analyzing BYD’s request to use an exclusive area in the Port of Aratu, as was granted in the past to Ford, to facilitate imports and exports.
