On Friday, Ford and its Chinese partner said that they shall construct a third plant in China. The announcement comes at a time when the US automaker is striving hard to enhance weak performance in the world's strongest market.

As per the reports, it will be in southwestern Chongqing where Ford will run the new 490-million-dollar plant via Changan Ford Mazda, which is its JV with Chongqing Changan Automobile Co and Japan's Mazda Motor Corp.

The US auto giant specified that the plant is scheduled to open in 2012, and will generate Ford's Focus compact car with an initial capacity for 150,000 vehicles a year.

Ford said via a statement, "The one-million-square-metre facility will boost Ford's and Mazda's combined annual production capacity to 600,000 vehicles from 447,000 in China -- where it is lagging behind US rival and local market leader General Motors."

With the partnerships and JVs, GM has acquired a total capacity of 1.29 million vehicles a year, including low-cost micro vans.

As per analysts J. D. Power and Associates, Ford, which ranks number 12 in terms of sales in China, is far behind Volkswagen AG, Hyundai Motor Company and Toyota Motor Company, which are China's top four automakers by sales.

The analysts say: "Ford sold 197,212 vehicles in the first half of the year, up 14 percent from a year earlier but the growth was dwarfed by GM, which shipped 814,442 units in the same period, up 38 percent year on year."

It was in January that, for the first time, China's total vehicle sales, helped by Beijing's efforts to stimulate domestic consumption, surpassed those of the United States. This made the Asian giant the world's largest car market.

The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers declared, "Total vehicle sales in China for the first half of the year were 6.09 million units, up 17.7 percent year-on- year."