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One-millionth Merc car produced in East London; plant increasing capacity by 25%

MBSA CEO Arno van der Merwe

MBSA CEO Arno van der Merwe

28th May 2015

By: Irma Venter

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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The Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) plant, in East London, on Thursday saw its one-millionth passenger car, a white C200 C-Class model, roll off the assembly line.

The first Mercedes-Benz passenger car produced in South Africa was a W121 Nap Vista Blue Mercedes-Benz 190, assembled in January 1958.

Reaching the milestone of the next million passenger cars would take “a lot less than a decade”, should demand and manufacturing conditions remain stable, said MBSA CEO and manufacturing executive director Arno van der Merwe.

He added that robust global demand for the new C-Class had seen the plant increase capacity by 10% since June 2014, when production of the model started in East London.

Van der Merwe said MBSA was taking steps to increase capacity by another 10% to 15% by the end of the year.

Base capacity at the plant for the new C-Class was 100 000 units.

The plant was currently “operating at full capacity, plus some”, said Van der Merwe.

Capacity increases were being executed largely by removing bottlenecks in the current manufacturing process, he noted, rather than a large capital injection.

A number of jobs, not yet quantified, would be added to the MBSA workforce.

MBSA would also start exporting the new C-Class to the US by the end of the year, adding to a long list of export destinations.

While the US had a C-Class plant, this facility was tied up producing vehicles for an ever-growing Mercedes-Benz sports utility vehicle market.

Most of the increased capacity at the East London plant would be targeted at the global market, with the local market “flat”, said Van der Merwe.

Looking ahead, he noted that it was possible to have either an attitude of survival or of achievement within the local marketplace.

“Playing to win is an important part of [MBSA’s] philosophy.”

He added that the myth of “a difficult, unproductive” South African work force “had to be removed” from the narrative about the country, as it was leadership’s task to “bring excellence and commitment to the workplace”.

It was also necessary for the workforce and management to have a common understanding of the world economy and what South Africa had to do to compete effectively within this economy.

“We need to understand that we are all in this together.”

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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