OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Friday 3.30pm
DAIMLERCHRYSLER said on Friday that it is lifting investment in South Africa and will switch production of the right-hand drive model of its key new ‘C’ class Mercedes-Benz sedan to the country.
The car giant said in a statement that it will immediately target annual production of 40000 to 45000 units of the model and said that the majority will be for export. The order will be manufactured at DCSA’s East London plant.
”This represents a major challenge for the company and for South African industry in general,” Christoph Kopke, chairman of DaimlerChrysler SA, said in a statement.
The deal is a vote of confidence in SA and is good news for both the country’s balance of payments and crucial long-term fixed investment.
But Kopke warned that the company’s South African unit will have to deliver a top-quality product, or suffer the consequences. ”We will have to prove our ability to produce cars which are globally competitive in terms of quality and delivery standards,” he said. It will spend an additional R120-million on training.
The company forecast turnover at its South African division to double to R12-billion by 2001 from R6,2-billion in 1999 and said that its investment in SA would be lifted by R400-million to R1,3-billion. –Reuters