China's Baosteel Group and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp have agreed to cooperate in automotive steel wheel production, Baosteel said on Friday.

Baosteel has established a unit to produce high-intensity, light-weight steel wheels for automobiles, with support from Shanghai Automotive, the steelmaker said.

It gave no figures for investment or a time table for completion of the project, although it aims for annual production capacity of 6 million wheels.

Baosteel, China's largest steel mill and the parent of Baoshan Iron and Steel Co , has been expanding in automotive steel production, aiming to tap rapid growth in the country's automaking sector.

Vehicle sales in China surged 24 percent in the first 10 months of this year to 7.15 million units.

Shanghai Automotive is the parent of SAIC Motor Corp, China's largest maker of passenger cars and a Chinese partner of General Motors Corp and Volkswagen AG.