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PostPosted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 9:11 am 
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Icon of British transport to be produced in China

The largest maker of the quintessential British black taxi announced on Monday that it planned to make the distinctive purpose-built vehicle in China.

The company, Manganese Bronze Holdings, said it had signed a preliminary agreement with the state-owned China National Bluestar Group and the Chinese authorities to start a joint venture company to manufacture the cabs.

"I am delighted that we have reached this significant milestone," said Ian Pickering, chief executive of Manganese Bronze, which owns London Taxis International, the company responsible for making the renowned vehicle in Britain. "We are implementing our strategy of growing the group's business outside its traditional home market."

"Bluestar has a proven track record of growing new businesses, which, together with the support of the Lanzhou Municipal People's government, will be central to making a success of the proposed joint venture," he said.

Lanzhou is the capital of Gansu Province, a major transport and industrial center on the Yellow River and a major communication hub for the north west region of China with a population of 3.1 million. Bluestar has its headquarters in Beijing.

LTI makes taxis at its plant in Coventry, in central England, where an average of 2,500 cabs roll off the assembly line every year.

The company and its smaller rival Metrocab have exported taxis over the years to more than 30 countries, including South Africa, Russia and Japan, where black cabs are popular.

With sales dipping at home, LTI is looking to expand production abroad.

Chicago's Yellow Cab, which runs one of the biggest taxi fleets in the United States, recently took delivery of 26 of its cabs, while others are headed to operators in California, Florida and Canada.

The bulk of production has stayed in Britain, however, most visibly in London where only LTI and Metrocab vehicles - which typically sell for about £30,000, or $55,740.

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Now if LTI spent enough time looking after the UK punters, then this Chiness venture would be a bonus, not a life saver. :wink:

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 Post subject: LTI
PostPosted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 12:45 pm 
Good feature uncle Suss,very inelesting


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 Post subject: LTI
PostPosted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 12:47 pm 
Uncle Suss good reply,feature velly intelesting


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 Post subject: Re: LTI
PostPosted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 2:08 pm 
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Location: Plymouth, i think, i'll just check the A to Z!
another example of cost cutting at the expense of british jobs.
obviously going over to take full advantage of the cheap labour and sweat box conditions. but do you think the price will drop when the labour costs are 10% of what it was before? my arse!!

its bad enough trying to get spare parts as it is. be even worse when it got to come all the way from china.


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 Post subject: steveo
PostPosted: Tue Feb 10, 2004 5:58 pm 
Good point,but cannot see them closing the british manufacturing,not that
stupid,or are they


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 Post subject: Re: LTI
PostPosted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 1:57 am 
steveo wrote:
another example of cost cutting at the expense of british jobs.
obviously going over to take full advantage of the cheap labour and sweat box conditions. but do you think the price will drop when the labour costs are 10% of what it was before? my arse!!

its bad enough trying to get spare parts as it is. be even worse when it got to come all the way from china.



well they cannot bring the cheap labour here but you are right.

lti should drop in price by 90%


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 Post subject: Re: steveo
PostPosted: Wed Feb 11, 2004 1:58 am 
Anonymous wrote:
Good point,but cannot see them closing the british manufacturing,not that
stupid,or are they


what pray is stupid about it?

of course they will close the local plant.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Feb 12, 2004 2:39 am 
Yup, and I'd bet the quality will improve immensely, because under Chinese human rights legisltion, the penalties for shoddy work are rather substantial.

Can't actually see the price dropping though, they still have all those flashy stands at Donny and Sandown to pay for, plus all the leggy "salesladies" and that not to mention the legal cases against Cab Direct and others that have to be funded along with the "incentives"


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Feb 17, 2004 8:53 pm 
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why wouldn't they build it abroad?

its commonly known that call centres operate throughout the world because of the slave labour, why shouldnt LTI?

Perhaps they can bring me back some drivers for the things!
(effing useless ford engines, better off wiv the effing flintstone mobile)

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 2:25 am 
Anonymous wrote:
Yup, and I'd bet the quality will improve immensely, because under Chinese human rights legisltion, the penalties for shoddy work are rather substantial.

Can't actually see the price dropping though, they still have all those flashy stands at Donny and Sandown to pay for, plus all the leggy "salesladies" and that not to mention the legal cases against Cab Direct and others that have to be funded along with the "incentives"


come on sonny legal cases against the likes of cab direct are not paid for by LTI. but by licensing authorities ie me and you who pay licence fees.


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