Daimler to shift truck manufacturing to Tamil Nadu

Chennai, April 18 (IANS) Daimler AG, the German heavy vehicle manufacturer, will shift the production of its trucks from Pune in Maharashtra to Oragadam in Tamil Nadu from where it plans to export the vehicles to Africa and Asean countries, a company official said Wednesday.

The company's Actros trucks and Mercedes Benz buses are now made at its Pune plant.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa had inaugurated the 36,000-unit per annum plant at Orgadam near here Tuesday. Daimler board chairman Dieter Zetsche was present at the event.

The official said the Actros trucks would also be assembled within the new plant complex.

The plant will roll out light and heavy duty trucks. The plant has a capacity to roll out 24,000 heavy duty trucks and 12,000 light duty trucks per year on a two-shift basis.

The plant will roll out 18 truck variants with vehicle capacity ranging from 7-16 tonne on the light duty side and 25-49 tonne under the heavy duty category.

According to the official, 85 percent of the components, including the engine and gear box, are locally sourced.

An official of Mercedes Benz India told IANS from Pune that the shifting of bus production to Tamil Nadu had begun. The plant is expected to achieve the full capacity by 2014-15 and the company targets a market share of 20 percent in the Indian truck market dominated by Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland.

The company will also shift its research and development (R&D) team, is now located at a different place here, to the plant site.