Rio de Janeiro, Nov 11 (EFE) .- The Brazilian group Caoa, which has the license to manufacture vehicles of the Korean Hyundai in the country, today announced an association agreement by which acquired 50% of the subsidiary that the Chinese assembler Chery has in Brazil.

The agreement allows Caoa, which manufactures three Hyundai models in Brazil and manages all the concessionaires of the Korean group in the country, operate the factory that Chery has in the Brazilian city of Jacareí with capacity to produce up to 50,000 vehicles per year.

currently working with a large capacity idle in its factory in the interior of the state of Sao Paulo, Chery produces two models in the plant, the QQ, which is the cheapest vehicle offered in Brazil, and the Celer, and is preparing to launch the light commercial Tiggo 2.

As a graduate of Hyndai, Caoa produces cars of the Korean assembler as the Tucson and the truck HR in a factory in Anapolis, city in the Brazilian state of Goiás (center).

Caoa's objective with the association is to expand its factory in Anapolis to start producing vehicles from Chery also on this plant.

Caoa, a 100% Brazilian group that also has concessionaires of the Japanese Subaru and the US Ford in Brazil, will assume responsibility in the distribution of Chery cars produced in Brazil.

The buyer disclosed a statement in which he refrained from disclosing the value of the operation, but press releases they indicate that they paid 60 million dollars for half of Chery Brazil.

Caoa informed that the two manufacturers will start operating jointly starting next Monday under the name of Caoa Chery and that will make investments for 2,000 million dollars in the next two years to convert the two factories of the group in Brazil into a platform to export automobiles to the other countries of Latin America.

The Brazilian group added that it will launch new models starting next year with the aim that Chery can reach in 2022 a 5% share in the Brazilian car market, which would place it above assemblers that have older plants in Brazil such as Jeep (3.87%) and Nissan (2.89%).

In 2016, the Brazilian automotive industry recorded a fall of 11.2% in production and 20.19% in the sales.

According to the figures released this week by the employers' association, the production of vehicles in Brazil between January and October 2017, driven by a jump in sales and exports, grew by 28.5% compared to the first ten months of last year, with a total of 2.23 million units manufactured.