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US export record for Mercedes-Benz SA

19 October 2010

Mercedes-Benz South Africa scored a double success this week, loading a record 3 280 C-Class vehicles onto a ship bound for the United States, including the 100 000th C-Class vehicle to be exported to the US from the automaker's East London plant.

"This week saw [Mercedes-Benz South Africa] export its largest ever single consignment of Mercedes-Benz C-Class cars destined for US customers," Mercedes-Benz SA CEO Hansgeorg Niefer said in a statement.

JD Power Platinum Award

"This volume of vehicles from our East London plant reaffirms that US customers are very satisfied with the South African build quality, and underpins the reasons Mercedes-Benz SA received the 2010 JD Power Platinum Award for initial quality earlier this year."

The award was based on a US survey conducted among over 80 000 US new car owners earlier this year.

"The local plant was thus named the best plant in the world – best among all brands and manufacturers serving the US," said Rainer Ruess, manufacturing site leader at the plant.

Harbour deepening

Terry Taylor, corporate affairs manager of Transnet National Ports Authority, remarked that the recent deepening of the west quay at the East London harbour had reaped immediate benefits.

"The new depth allows more flexibility for larger vessels," he said. "Together with this, we also added another 1 200 parking bays in close proximity to the quay-side. The total cost of the development was just over R40-million."

SAinfo reporter