All Mercedes-Benz articles
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Mercedes-Benz to produce batteries in Poland
Markus Schäfer (left), Mercedes-Benz Cars divisional board member with responsibility for production and supply chain, with Polish prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki Mercedes-Benz Cars is to build a lithium-ion battery factory in Jawor, Poland, at the same site where the German OEM is building its new engine plant. ...
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Stepping up the quality
There are several advantages of shipping vehicles in kits rather than as completely built units, including lower costs for transport, better customs import conditions and the support of local government in exchange for providing employment to the workforce. A major disadvantage, however, is that defective, damaged or lost goods may ...
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Daimler to spend €20 billion on battery cells
German carmaker Daimler says it will buy battery cells costing more than €20 billion ($22.6 billion) over the next decade as it prepares to introduce 130 electrified variants of Mercedes-Benz cars by 2022.The group is investing €10 billion to make the models, plus another €1 billion on an in-house global ...
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Mercedes-Benz takes to rail to move cars to China
Russia’s railway monopoly RZD has delivered the first batch of finished Mercedes-Benz vehicles from Bremerhaven, in Germany, to Chongqing in China. The new route, which is informally referred to as the new Silk Road, has already proved a viable alternative to ocean shipping vehicles from Europe to China, which takes ...
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Mapping for Mercedes
In June this year, Mercedes-Benz US International (MBUSI) announced the outcome of its inaugural Innovation Challenge, a competition for start-ups which promised $50,000 in prize money as well as the alluring prospect of a contract with Mercedes-Benz in the US, and perhaps also its global parent, Daimler AG. Not ...
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Technology to prove key to evolution of supply chains
The automotive industry is being reshaped by the rise of electric and autonomous vehicles but will only stay ahead of the curve in an age of greater supply chain complexity by adopting wider digitalisation as part of its routine operations, delegates at the JDA conference in Barcelona were told last ...
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JLR to open engineering office in Budapest
Jaguar Land Rover has announced it will open a technical engineering office in Budapest, Hungary, early next year to support the management of its European supply chain. It follows the official opening of its €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) assembly plant in Nitra (pictured), in neighbouring Slovakia, on October 25.Nick Rogers, ...
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WLTP causes sharp shift in German car sales
New passenger car registrations in Germany fell 31% year-on-year to an estimated 200,100 in September. In August, the figure was a 25% increase to 316,400.German automotive industry association, the VDA, said the volatility was because of distortions caused by the new Worldwide Light-Duty Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP), which is intended ...
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Looking to technology to tackle looming disruption
The automotive industry in the UK is in the shadow of looming disruption brought about not just by the uncertainties of Brexit but a host of other issues that will be made more problematic if the country leaves Europe without a deal on March 29 next year. Given that the ...
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Auto industry still assessing impact of hurricane
It is still too early to determine the full impact on the North American automotive supply chain of last week's Hurricane Florence, which hit the east coast of the US over the weekend and brought destruction to large areas of North and South Carolina. The hurricane, which caused damage to ...
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Fuso to build CKD plant in Thailand
Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) has announced it will construct a complete knockdown (CKD) assembly plant in Thailand.In a first stage, the unit will put together Fuso’s heavy-duty FJ 2528C trucks, launched in Thailand earlier this year and designed for the rapidly growing construction sector.Work on building the ...
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Smart logistics behind Mercedes-Benz US van plant
Production of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van range has now begun at an expanded assembly plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, after a two-year construction period.Plans for the $500m Sprinter-focused expansion to the North Charleston site date back to March 2015. The investment there has included a body shop, paint shop ...
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Cracking under sanctions
The re-imposition of sanctions by the US on Iran has dealt a hammer blow to the country’s emerging automotive industry. The threat of retaliation by the US against those whom it deems to have broken those sanctions has, once again, prompted vehicle-makers and logistics companies to pull out of the ...
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Nissan opens up new production Frontier
Japanese OEM Nissan has started manufacturing the Frontier pick-up truck in Argentina – the fifth country to make the vehicle. Known as the Nissan Navara elsewhere in the world, the vehicle is already produced in Mexico, Spain, China and Thailand.The company has opted to produce the truck in Alliance partner ...
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BLG expands US services for Mercedes-Benz
BLG Logistics is expanding its core operations in the US, where it acts as a supplier for Mercedes-Benz.The company is making its largest investment ever outside Germany at its US base in Vance, Alabama, where a total of $7.1m is being spent on setting up an automated small-parts warehouse for ...
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Valmet starts production of new Mercedes-Benz
Finnish contract manufacturer Valmet Automotive has begun making the new A-class for Mercedes-Benz at Uusikaupunki in Finland, the third plant to make the latest version. The move to include contract production at Valmet was first announced last year. Pasi Rannus senior vice president manufacturing, Valmet Automotive, and the Valmet team ...
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A rising tide – with political undercurrents
Mexican production and exports continued to grow through 2017, both to the US and globally. At the same time, US sales remained strong and were fed by an increase in imports from established and emerging markets. It is only in Canada that both sales and assembly are showing a decline. ...
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Mercedes-Benz boosts local sourcing in South Africa
Mercedes-Benz is enlarging its supply chain within South Africa as it expands production at its plant in East London, on the country’s east coast.The OEM has added 35 new suppliers based in South Africa to the plant’s supply chain, with seven being tier one suppliers and three sequencing suppliers.“We have ...
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Opening up the angles for multimodal
Now in its 15th year, BMW’s joint venture with Brilliance China Automotive – BMW Brilliance Automotive (BBA) – is adopting a more multimodal approach to its outbound vehicle logistics in the country, and there are a number of reasons for that, according to the company’s vice-president of logistics and strategy, ...
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Mercedes-Benz to expand South African plant
German manufacturer Mercedes-Benz Cars is to spend €600m ($697m) on the assembly of the next generation of C-Class models at its plant in East London, South Africa.Factory space for passenger vehicle production will increase by two-thirds and include new logistic warehouses, paint and body shops and an upgrade of the ...