BMW is set to become the latest foreign auto manufacturer to expand its operations in China.

The German company currently makes around 41,000 cars a year in the Asian country and has now announced plans to increase this to 100,000, creating hundreds of new engineering jobs for Chinese workers in the process.

Along with its partner Brilliance Automotive Holdings Ltd, BMW is to spend $836 million on a new plant, which will help it boost its presence in a country which is on course to overtake the United States as the world's largest automotive market within the next few months.

"Our plant has reached its capacity limit, so we are now taking the next step," explained the company's chief financial officer Friedrich Eichiner.

He added that the move will create around 1,000 positions, including hundreds of engineering jobs, in the city of Shenyang, while also serving to reduce BMW's exposure to currency fluctuations.

Mercedes Benz also has operations in China, where it produces its C-class sedans and where, according to Bloomberg, it expects to overtake BMW in the luxury car market in the near future.