Beijing (ZXZC)- Great Wall Motor (GWM), one of China’s top SUV and pickup manufacturers, has entered into agreement with Mercedes Benz to buy a factory in Brazil from the Germany automaker, the Chinese company announced on Wednesday.

Photo credit: Great Wall Motor

Under the agreement, the factory, included land, manufacturing facilities and machines, will be handed over to GWM. The deal, expected to complete by the end of this year, is about asset transaction and does not involve personnel transfer.

GWM plans to adopt advanced production, quality management approaches in accordance with the company’s global manufacturing standard to build the plant into a smart manufacturing base, which can offer products for Brazil and other South America markets. After the retooling, the plant will have an annual capacity of 100,000 vehicles and create 2000 jobs.

Photo credit: Great Wall Motor

This deal marks GWM’s entry into the biggest economy of Latin America. Xiangshang Liu, vice president of GWM, said that the company will be committed to studying local consumers’ needs and local market’s development as it treats the market as one of its important overseas markets.

In recent years, GWM is accelerating its expansion in overseas markets, such as Russia, Egypt, and Australia. Last month, sales of its overseas markets nearly doubled to 12,438 vehicles when compared with the same month of last year. The cumulative sales in the first seven months of this year soared 176.2% to 74,110 vehicles. By 2025, it aims to sell 1 million vehicles per year in overseas markets.