SHANGHAI - The construction of German carmaker Mercedes-Benz's auto parts remanufacturing plant in Shanghai began Thursday, the company said.

Once completed, the plant in the Shanghai Lingang Remanufacturing Industry Demonstration Base will be the only remanufacturing base Mercedes-Benz's parent company Daimler AG has outside Europe.

With an intended investment in excess of 600 million yuan ($91 million), the plant will focus on auto component recycling in Asia Pacific in modern areas such as electric vehicles.

Different from repair factories, remanufacturing plants use advanced technology to upgrade outdated facilities and improve their performance. The quality of their products equals that of new ones, but at half the cost. They can also save energy and material consumption by 60 percent and 70 percent respectively.

As China's remanufacturing industry demonstration zone, Lingang has many key laboratories in the industry. Several world-class companies, including Caterpillar and GE Aviation, have entered the zone.