China wants to build Rover cars

COMPONENT makers that used to supply MG Rover have been approached to sell parts to enable the Rover 75 model to be built in China, it was revealed tonight.

The firms said they had been approached by the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and that production could start by the end of the year.

Jerry Blacket, policy director at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: 'Although the suppliers have been approached, there is an issue over who owns the rights to the tooling of the 75. We wish the circumstances were different, but the fact that first-tier suppliers may be able to sell to SAIC offers some glimmer of hope to those companies hit hard by the MG Rover demise.'

Earlier, the boss of MG Rover claimed there was a 'slim hope' that some form of car production could be rescued at Longbridge. John Towers said he believed there was still some hope for the Birmingham factory, adding that he had been just 20 minutes away from securing a partnership deal with SAIC.

Towers told a radio phone-in that he spending 16 hours a day at Longbridge supporting the administrators and looking at how the partnership deal could be restructured. There had been an expression of interest on Friday in buying the Powertrain engine business which was being assessed.

'There is hope we can get back into significant production. The future is bleak, but I still firmly believe that we have the possibility that we could get car making back at Longbridge.'

A deal with the Chinese 'could still come good' insisted Towers, adding: 'It is not dead.' He told listeners to BBC Radio WM: 'That is the best possible outcome that could happen. It would lead to a significant number of jobs at Longbridge.'

One worker emailed the radio programme asking Towers how he could 'square' his pay with the fact that employees would be walking away with just a few thousand pounds at most.

Towers said he and his fellow directors were paid £30,000 a year when MG Rover was bought from BMW five years ago, and the figure then rose to £36,000.

The 'widely exaggerated' earnings were paid by MG Rover's owners Phoenix Venture Holdings as a result of activities that had nothing to do with Rover, Towers maintained.