TOKYO, Feb. 8 (Kyodo) — Chuo Spring Co., a Nagoya-based suspension spring supplier affiliated with Toyota Motor Corp., said Friday it has signed an agreement with China Spring Corp. to form a joint venture to manufacture automobile coil springs and stabilizers.

Under the accord with the Shanghai-based firm, Chuo Spring will set up the fifty-fifty venture, Xiaogan Zhongxing Automobile Components Co., around mid-April and will start production in May 2014, it said.

The venture, capitalized at 60 million yuan or some 800 million yen, will be located in Xiaogan, Hubei Province, it said, adding the venture’s 6,900-square-meter factory will supply its products to a range of carmakers operating in China.