Mexico City, Feb 8 (IANS/EFE): Jatco, a unit of Japanese automaker Nissan, said it planned to build a $220 million plant in western Mexico to manufacture 400,000 automobile transmissions annually.

The plant will be constructed at the Aguascalientes 2 industrial park, with groundbreaking expected in the summer of 2014, Jatco Mexico executives said during a ceremony at the Los Pinos presidential residence in Mexico City.

Some 800,000 automatic and semiautomatic continuously variable transmissions (CVT) have been produced at the Aguascalientes plant since 2003, the Japanese company said.

The new plant is expected to help boost annual production capacity for transmissions to 1.7 million units by 2016, Jatco Mexico said.

The new facility will give "an important boost to manufacturing operations at Nissan's second complex in Aguascalientes, where production is expected to start in late 2013", the company said.

Jatco's decision to build the plant "is good news" and reflects investor confidence in Mexico, President Enrique Pena Nieto said.

The automotive industry accounts for 20 percent of Mexico's manufacturing gross domestic product, bolstering economic development efforts in the country, Pena Nieto said.

The new Jatco plant is expected to create 1,200 jobs, the president said.