SAIC-Iveco Hongyan Commercial Vehicle Co., Ltd. (SIH), a heavy-duty truck manufacturer, broke ground on a smart factory in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Wednesday.

The company, founded in 2007, is jointly invested by Chongqing Machinery & Electronics Holding (Group) Co. Ltd. and SAIC-Iveco Commercial Vehicle Investment Co., Ltd., a joint venture of Chinese automaker SAIC Motor and Iveco S.p.A. in Italy.

With an investment of 1.1 billion yuan (about 163 million U.S. dollars), the new plant is located in the city's Liangjiang New Area and is expected to bring up SIH's annual production capacity to 150,000, adding an annual output value of 20 billion yuan after completion.

The new intelligent digital factory will not only improve production efficiency, but also reduce energy consumption and pollution, according to the company.

The factory will also improve the levels of automation, informatization and intelligence through the intelligentized reconstruction of existing workshops and production lines, while realizing the iterative upgrading of products.

Lou Jianping, SIH's general manager, said the company will continue to increase sci-tech, capital and production-capacity input for the quality development of SIH.

The Chongqing-headquartered SIH sold a total of 58,637 heavy-duty trucks in the first three quarters of 2020, up 5.8 percent year on year. Its annual sales volume is expected to surpass 80,000 units, with an annual sales revenue of more than 21 billion yuan. Enditem