Geely to ramp up gearbox production

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Last year Geely purchased DSI, one of the worlds largest gearbox manufacturers. Despite early issues with management walk outs and various other issues, Geely seem to have a firm grip on the company and plan on ramping up production at the gearbox plant.

Two Geely Automobile plants in Jining, Shandong Province and Xiangtan of Hunan Province will produce gearboxes based on the technology of Drivetrain Systems International (DSI) after the 2010 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China 2010) next month, media reported March 9.

After these two plants begin production, another of Geely’s DSI plants in Tongliang of Chongqing will also start manufacturing the gearboxes with an investment of 800 million yuan ($117 million) with a production capacity of 300,000 units a year.

The three plants will provide automatic gearboxes for Geely and other Chinese carmakers, disclosed Geely Chairman Li Shufu.

Geely acquired Australian automatic gearbox maker DSI in 2009. That helped the Chinese automaker improve its gearbox technology to produce products compatible with engines above 2.0L.

The Chinese company’s existing automatic gearbox technology is only suited for engines below 1.8L.

A source told NBD.com.cn that DSI China plants and Geely’s R&D center in Hangzhou will support future domestic Volvo vehicles with core components and technology, and DSI gearbox may be integrated into Volvo cars.