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SA to build new Mercedes C-Class

Johannesburg - Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA), a unit of Daimler AG, on Tuesday said it would produce the next-generation Mercedes-Benz C-Class at its East London plant.
 
Daimler AG also announced that it would invest a further R2bn in the plant in preparation for production of the new C-Class, which will be introduced to global markets in 2014.

Dr Wolfgang Bernhard, a member of the Daimler AG board, said it was "delighted" to include South Africa among the four manufacturing locations to build the vehicles, which are the among the most popular in the Mercedes-Benz passenger cars range.

He said the plant in  East London had been repeatedly recognised for its "excellent production quality" and was one of the best manufacturing plants in the industry.

"MBSA has also managed to provide us with a business and production plan that is competitive globally. Hence, our decision to also build the next generation of our C-Class at the East London plant is a logical step. This new, additional investment follows numerous significant investments, totalling over R5bn that Daimler AG has made in South Africa over the past 10 years," he said.

The three other Mercedes-Benz plants selected to produce the next-generation C-Class are located in Germany, China and the USA.

MBSA's future export programme will include building both left- and right-hand drive C-Class models for export to markets in Africa and the Asia Pacific region.

Hansgeorg Niefer, CEO of MBSA, said he was delighted with the "vote of confidence".

"We have had immense success in South Africa with the C-Class, and we have exported to left-hand drive markets since 1998 and to right-hand drive markets since 2000.

"Today is very special, as we can now go full steam ahead with our preparations to build the next generation of this successful Mercedes-Benz model. Just recently we exported the 100 000th C-Class built in East London.

"In the first quarter of next year we should reach the half-a-million mark of C-Class vehicles produced locally since 1994, which marked the model's start of production in South Africa."

This R2bn investment is expected to further enhance the positive economic impact of Mercedes-Benz activities in South Africa, both directly through its own operations as well as indirectly, eg on the supplier level.

The investment also provides for extensive skills development and training locally and in Germany, as well as for new plant and equipment, and the introduction of some of the very latest manufacturing technology.

"We will bring more than a dozen new technologies to South Africa in the car and production processes," said Niefer.

"MBSA will localise more than 40% of the components for this new vehicle. We expect to see more investors and new suppliers, all with the latest technologies coming to the country. These developments will certainly strengthen the entire automotive value chain.

"With the pledged support of the South African government, MBSA plans to make optimum use of the South African regulatory environment and leverage the advantages presented through the government's industrial policy action programme as well as the automotive investment scheme and the future automotive production development programme.

"The plant has the capacity to add a third shift, which means it will be able to run 24 hours per working day depending on market demand," Niefer said.
 
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