Daimler India Commercial Vehicles to produce Fuso trucks for export

Chennai, May 6, 2013: Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), the 100 percent wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, has announced that Daimler Trucks’ ‘Asian Strategy’, under its forward-looking programme named DT#1 (Daimler Trucks No. 1), is operational. The first result of this programme is the upcoming launch of the new robust truck portfolio from Fuso ‘Made in India’ by DICV. Exports from DICV are slated to begin in the first half of 2013.

While Daimler’s Commercial Vehicles Division’s ‘Future Focus Markets’ strategy targets further growth in the promising markets of Asia and Africa, Daimler Trucks’ integrated business model called ‘Asia Business Model’ provides for stronger bundling and optimisation of Daimler’s business operations and the associated systematic expansion of its presence, primarily in Asia.

The Asia Business Model will tap into the full synergy potential of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) in Kawasaki, Japan, and the Chennai-based DICV. The second quarter of 2013 onwards, Daimler is readying to make Fuso-branded trucks in India for sale in the price-intensive export markets in Asia and Africa.

Daimler is gunning for further unit sales increases in markets like Indonesia, Taiwan and Malaysia and expects its Asian business to contribute over 500,000 units by the year 2015 and more than 700,000 trucks in the year 2020. In 2012, MFTBC sold a total of about 174,000 vehicles including light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses. Daimler AG owns 89.29 percent of MFTBC shares and various Mitsubishi group companies own 10.71 percent.

“With the Asia Business Model, we are bringing our operations to the next level in order to support our existing and new customers with the right products and the best service in Asia and Africa”, said Dr Albert Kirchmann, president & CEO - MFTBC and Head of Daimler Trucks Asia. “With the united forces of MFTBC and DICV, we are effectively moving ahead of our competitors in terms of bringing concepts into reality. Daimler Trucks is already profiting from synergies between MFTBC and DICV in procurement and production, as well as in the product portfolio. We will be able to offer our customers an extended Fuso product portfolio of modern, robust and economical trucks soon, based on the established Daimler Trucks technical product platform.“

Marc Llistosella, MD and CEO, DICV, said: “We have begun production of BharatBenz trucks at our Chennai plant and are ready to produce Fuso trucks under one roof. While we continue to focus on the Indian market with BharatBenz vehicles, MFTBC will service the rising demand in the Asian and African regions with its portfolio of robust Fuso trucks from Chennai.”

Strong positioning in Asia and Africa

The global production network of Daimler Trucks facilitates efficient business operations and profitable growth. The integrated Asia business model draws on a multitude of synergies of DICV and MFTBC. The joint use of Daimler Trucks product platforms and closely interrelated product development and capacity leveraging production networks enable the Japanese subsidiary to target promising future growth markets. This is also supported by DICV’s newly acquired suppliers in India.

In terms of markets, Indonesia is already the largest export market for Fuso vehicles; in 2012, MFTBC registered double-digit growth with unit sales of 68,000 units. In the Middle East and in Africa, sales rose 63.1 percent to 24,201 units and 88.7 percent to 8,046 units respectively.