Daimler opens 400-acre production plant in Chennai

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt Ltd (DICV) has opened their production plant for the manufacturing of the BharatBenz series of trucks in Oragadam, Chennai. This 400-acre manufacturing plant has an initial manufacturing capacity of 36,000 trucks which can be ramped to 70,000 units.

It is state of the art with the actual plant area covering about 270 acres. The plant layout follows the 'fishbone' structure where all components travel towards the assembly line. The engine department has an initial manufacturing capacity of 24,000 units which can be expanded to 70,000. The engines made here will be only for the heavy duty trucks. For the light duty trucks the engines will be supplied by Avtech. All transmissions are made in house, with an initial capacity of 36,000 units which can be ramped up to about 70,000. Daimler claim that the 30,000 sq metre assembly shop is the longest in India with its 290m length. There are 36 stations for the HDT trucks. The plant has the capacity to roll out a truck in four hours. This Oragadam plant in one of the only three Daimler plants across the world to combine truck assembly and components production at one location.

The truck will have a localisation rate of 85 per cent with 40 per cent of the suppliers being located within 40-km radius of the plant. There are a couple of suppliers which are located within the plant itself.

The trucks will be launched in September, 2012 with the 25-tonne being the first product to be rolled out. It will be followed by the 31-tonne the next month. BharatBenz will have a product portfolio of 17 trucks by 2014. DICV has also build up a dealership network of 70 locations across the country and plan to expand it to 110 by the end of 2014.

DICV is also shifting the assembly of the Mercedes-Benz Actros range of trucks from Pune to Chennai. These premium trucks which are being sold as a CKD unit is targeted at the mining market.

Parallel to the inauguration of the plant, DICV also flagged off the 'BharatBenz Power Yatra' which will see a convoy of BharatBenz trucks â€" LDT & HDT â€" cover 7000km over a period of two months across the country to showcase the reliability and durability of the trucks.

The inauguration of the 4400 crore plant was done by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, explained, "Our new Oragadam-Chennai plant shares Daimler's stringent quality standards with its sister plants around the world and is unique at the same time. It is the only Daimler plant in the world that houses products which combine Indian engineering with German and Japanese DNA under a single roof. This way, we are optimally positioning ourselves for one of the world's strongest and fastest-growing truck markets."

Marc Llistosella, CEO and Managing Director of DICV, said, "Filled with pride and joy, I dedicate today's plant opening to the employees of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles. Our work-force is primarily Indian and has steadily increased to include more than 1,400 employees today."