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It could end up being BMW’s largest car manufacturing facility in the world ahead of the Dingolfing unit back home in Southern Bavaria, Germany.
Spartanburg in South Carolina will see 300,000 BMW X3, X5 and X6 models produced this calendar, going up to 350,000 units two years down the line. By then, the X4 will be part of the BMW line-up in this plant. Dingolfing, in contrast, accounted for around 280,000 cars in 2011.
Nearly 70 per cent of the cars produced in Spartanburg are exported, officials told journalists visiting the plant last week. The trip was organised by Lanxess, the German specialty chemicals maker, a key supplier of auto parts to BMW.
An important auto hub
Spartanburg has been home to BMW for nearly two decades now and has helped the German carmaker emerge the largest American export brand. The cars head out to 130 countries from this part of the US. “Years ago, not too many people would have thought that South Carolina would be an important auto hub. It was Detroit all the way,” an auto observer told Business Line .
Today, Detroit is a shadow of its former self where iconic American brands like General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are thinking more Asia-Pacific and Latin America in an intensely competitive global arena.
The availability of a port in South Carolina is a big help to companies like BMW which export a substantial part of their output. It is a familiar script in India where states like Gujarat are showcasing their strengths in ports and roads to woo global names like Ford, Suzuki and Peugeot.
It will also be interesting to see if Spartanburg will be BMW’s largest plant through this decade. The company has big plans for China which has comfortably overtaken the US as the world’s largest car market.
China also offers the benefits of economies of scale which BMW could well leverage to service other regions like ASEAN and Latin America. India may not replicate China’s numbers, but will continue to be relevant as the youngest country in the world where new buyers are gradually tilting towards luxury cars.
> murali.gopalan@thehindu.co.in
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