Mercedes-Benz aims to raise Asian sales

Mercedes-Benz aims to raise Asian sales

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Mercedes-Benz aims to substantially boost sales of both commercial and passenger vehicles in Asia, Albrecht Branding, managing director, commercial vehicles for Mercedes- Benz Asia Pte Ltd, said yesterday.

"Turnover from Asia (for both commercial and passenger vehicles) in 1995 was 9.2 percent of our worldwide revenue of 72 billion marks. And this is by far not enough," Branding told Reuters.

"To be a major player we must sell 200,000 units (commercial vehicles) in Asia a year," he said. The company currently sells fewer than 10,000 commercial vehicles in the region.

Mercedes-Benz, a unit of Daimler-Benz, aims to increase its Asian sales of commercial vehicles to 10 percent from three percent of the units sold worldwide.

Branding said the company was studying various new projects for the region. "We are studying R&D activity in Asia, preferably in Singapore."

He said there were plans to locate more manufacturing operations in Asia and the company needed to set up production sites in countries such as China. He declined to elaborate.

Mercedes-Benz now manufactures in South Korea and India, It has assembly operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines.

In July, Mercedes-Benz will launch its MB100 light commercial vehicle internationally. The MB100 is produced in South Korea with its joint venture partner Ssangyong Motor Co.

"We aim to produce 20,000 units for export markets (outside South Korea) in two years time," Branding said.

This year, Mercedes-Benz will export 5,000 MB100s from South Korea, half of them left-hand drive.

Mercedes-Benz's joint venture in Vietnam is producing about 200 units this year, divided equally between commercial and passenger vehicles for the Vietnam market.

"We will double every year. The ultimate target we want is to produce 6,000-10,000 units a year," said Branding. He said this could be achieved in five to six years.

Vietnam's car market is seen growing to 60,000 units a year, with the share of commercial vehicles at 40,000 by 2000. In 1996, demand would be 13,000-14,000 units, he said.

Singapore's Economic Development Board and Sembawang Corp each have an 11 percent stake in the Vietnam joint venture.

Autostar, part of Hong Kong's Peregrine Investments Holdings and Indo-Vietnam, part of Indonesia's Salim Group hold 12.5 percent each. Vietnamese parties hold 30 percent while Daimler- Benz has 53 percent, Branding said.