Valmet Automotive Inc. and Daimler AG have announced that Valmet Automotive will manufacture the new Mercedes-Benz A-Class to satisfy the expected high demand of the new vehicle. Valmet Automotive will start the work for the project immediately and the parties are expected to finalize the contract during the fall 2012.
More than 100,000 A-Class vehicles are planned to be manufactured by Valmet Automotive in Uusikaupunki, Finland from 2013 to 2016.
Daimler will parallelly produce the new A-Class in its own manufacturing facilities. According to Daimler, there are already 40,000 orders. The vehicle has been built in Rastatt, Germany, since July and will have its market launch in September 2012.
“Our new compacts are so popular with our customers that the Rastatt and Kecskemét plants are completely utilized. We thus signed Valmet Automotive as an experienced production specialist who will provide us with additional A-Class capacities as of 2013”, said Dr. Wolfgang Bernhard, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Manufacturing and Procurement Mercedes-Benz Cars & Mercedes-Benz Vans.
“We are very excited to manufacture for one of the world’s most recognized automotive brands”, said Ilpo Korhonen, President of Valmet Automotive. “Our capability to rapidly launch the production benefits from our expertise in process engineering and profound experience of demanding manufacturing projects and was essential in coming to an agreement with Daimler. We are looking forward to create further success through our high quality performance. We already have a long term, well established customer relationship with Daimler through our roof manufacturing business in Germany and Poland where Daimler is one of our key customers.”
According to Mr. Korhonen, the partnership with Daimler is very significant to Valmet Automotive and reflects the quality and competitiveness of the company’s services. Based on the current plans, the manufacturing of the A-Class will during 2013 allow Valmet Automotive to call back the temporarily laid-off employees (in average some 300-400 employees in 2012) and to hire some hundreds of new employees from 2014 onwards depending on the final development of the assembly volumes of Valmet Automotive product lines.
Finnish Industry Investment has been a shareholder in Valmet Automotive since 2010.
For more information:
Valmet Automotive:
Vice President Communications Teija Åhlman
Tel. +358 20 484 8060
Email: teija.ahlman@valmet-automotive.com
Finnish Industry Investment:
Investment Director Heikki Vesterinen
Tel. +358 40 5088 558
Email: heikki.vesterinen@industryinvestment.com