As most automakers in China report healthy sales growth amid the global downturn, Paris-based Inergy Automotive Systems is building a plastic fuel system plant in suburban Beijing.

According to a media report from Qianlong, the company is investing a total of 300 million yuan (US$43.9 million) in the plant located in the Beijing Auto parts Industrial Base in Shunyi district, a suburb northeast of Beijing. The first phase of the project will cost 120 million yuan (US$17.5 million), cover a factory complex of 21 mu (150,685 square feet), and is expected to start production by the end of this year, creating more than 100 jobs and generating annual sales of 300 million yuan (US$43.9 million). The company has secured contracts from Hyundai's Beijing operation.

Inergy is a joint venture between Cie. Plastic Omnium of France and Solvay SA of Belgium. Its first manufacturing facility in China went on stream last summer, with reported annual capacity of 400,000 parts.