Mercedes-Benz South Africa yesterday announced that its parent company Daimler AG would invest a further R2 billion in the East London manufacturing plant following confirmation that the local facility had been approved as a production location for the next generation of C-Class.
The investment deal comes just three months after two major strikes had the local motor manufacturing industry at its knees – testament to Daimler AG’s faith in its South African subsidiary’s standards and quality, which won it a string of awards in recent times.
The East London plant joins three others approved to produce the next C-Class – located in China, Germany and the USA. The production programme will include left- and right- hand drive models for export to markets elsewhere in Africa and Asia Pacific regions. Of course, the contract comes with further skills development and training for employees locally and in Germany, as well as the introduction of the latest manufacturing technology.
“Daimler AG is delighted to include South Africa among the four manufacturing locations around the world to build the next-generation C-Class – the most popular model within the Mercedes-Benz passenger cars range. The Mercedes-Benz plant in East London has been recognised repeatedly for its excellent production quality by J.D. Power and Associates and is one of the best manufacturing plants in the industry. This success is not least due to the great efforts of the East London plant’s team and its stringent application of the Mercedes-Benz production system with its robust processes and rigorous quality standards,” says Dr Wolfgang Bernhard, Daimler AG board of management member for Manufacturing and Procurement of Mercedes-Benz Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans.
“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 R5-billion that Daimler AG has made in South Africa over the past 10 years,” Dr Bernhard continued.
Dr Hansgeorg Niefer, CEO of Mercedes-Benz South Africa mentioned the advantages the new investment has for the local industry: “We will bring more than a dozen new technologies to South Africa in the car and production processes. MBSA will localise more than 40 per cent 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 (IPAP), as well as the Automotive Investment Scheme (AIS) and the future Automotive Production Development Programme (APDP). 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,” explained Dr. Niefer.
Adaptations for the next-generation C-Class will take place in a phased manner along with the continued production of the current C-Class right up to run-out. This will require a significant expansion of the technical capacity of the plant to 65 000 units. The next generation C-Class will be introduced globally in 2014.
