Kia Motors Corp. has begun trial operations at a new 6.8 billion yuan ($900 million) plant in China, with the first phase of mass production scheduled to start in October, the South Korean company said.

Kia's China venture Dongfeng Yueda Kia, a three-way tie-up that includes China's Dongfeng Motor Group Co. Ltd. and Jiangsu Yueda Investment Co., already operates a plant in east China making the Cerato, Optima and Rio models. The new plant will more than triple the venture's current annual capacity to 430,000 units in 2010, when it reaches its full capacity of 300,000 vehicles, the company said in a statement.

Many global automakers such as Toyota Motor Corp. and PSA Peugeot Citroen are ramping up capacity in the world's second-largest auto market, where 3.08 million cars were sold in the first half of the year, up 22.26 percent from a year earlier.

Kia, an affiliate of South Korean's top car maker Hyundai Motor Co., started building the new plant in October 2005.