US car maker expands MidEast ops with UAE parts facility

Chrysler Group, the US automaker majority-owned by Fiat, said on Wednesday it has opened Mopar parts-distribution centres in Shanghai and Dubai to help the company’s expansion plans in Asia and the Middle East. “These are key strategic moves that are completing the final separation from Daimler,” Pietro Gorlier, chief executive officer of the Mopar parts brand, said in an interview prior to the announcement. Chrysler, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, was previously owned by then-DaimlerChrysle, and Daimler has continued to provide some logistics services to Chrysler, he said. The China facility will distribute more than 35,000 parts to more than 130 dealers in China and to third-party distributors and partners throughout the Asia-Pacific region, Chrysler said in a statement today. The UAE facility will distribute more than 30,000 parts to the Middle East and Africa, Chrysler said. “We are expanding significantly, for example, in the Middle East,” Gorlier said. Fiat, based in Turin, Italy, obtained control of Chrysler as part of the US automaker’s bankruptcy reorganization in 2009. Fiat will also use the centers.