Fiat announces 3.4 bln dlr investment in Brazil

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2007

BRASILIA (AFP) — Fiat is to invest nearly 3.4 billion dollars in South America's biggest car market, Brazil, over the next three years to boost in-country production, the CEO of the Italian automaker, Sergio Marchione, said Friday.

The lion's share of the investment -- 2.8 billion dollars -- will go to expanding a factory the company already has in Betim, in the southwestern state of Minas Gerais, the governor of the state, Aecio Neves, told reporters here.

The expansion will push the plant's production from a current 700,000 vehicles per year to over a million in 2010, Neves said following a meeting with Marchione and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The rest of Fiat's money will go to developing its factories in the southeastern state of Sao...