 "JLR officials in US to discuss new plant")
Executives of Tata Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover met the governor of Georgia, US to discuss setting up a new factory in the state, a local newspaper reported.
Unidentified people spoke to Atlanta Journal-Constitution stating that governor Nathan Deal and state economic development commissioner Chris Carr met with representatives of company which is scouting for land in south eastern US.
The company, which is fast exhausting production capacity at its UK plants thanks to robust demand for almost all its products, is forced to debottleneck production lines to extract additional output.
Over the last several months Jaguar and Land Rover had to overlook the US market and reroute its supplies to China where products fetch more than twice the price charged in the US. China thus became the margin growth driver for the two luxury brands.
Lower supplies to the US is despite the fact that the country remains one of the top three markets for JLR where demand still remains significant. US generates 17% of total sales of JLR. Sources say the US plant is targeted for a capacity of 100,000 units a year.
Speaking to Business Standard recently Kenneth Gregor, chief financial officer, Jaguar Land Rover, said, "The US is a market for premium cars and a very important market. We are exploring our options to expand manufacturing reach globally and yes US could be one of the markets. We would look at it but that is not to say that we have anything concrete to announce".
JLR's present capacity in the UK is between 450,000-500,000. The China JV which began production in October is slated to add 130,000 units a year while a small facility in Brazil will have a capacity of 24,000 units a year. JLR also has small assembly operations in India and plans to set up a new facility in Saudi Arabia.