Kamaz and Daimler Trucks set up joint venture

Kamaz and Daimler Trucks, a Daimler AG commercial cars subdivision, have today signed a memorandum of understanding on establishing a joint venture Mercedes-Benz Trucks Vostok, to manufacture Mercedes-Benz trucks on the Russian market, says the Kamaz’s press service.

The memorandum stipulates the Russian and German parties’s equal participation in the joint venture. The new venture is based on a strategic partnership agreement, singed in December 2008 by the Daimler AG executives, Troika Dialog, Rostekhnologii state corporation and Kamaz. Pursuant to it, the German concern has bought a 10-percent stake in Kamaz.

Over the time since the signing, the parties have explored the possibility of implementing 17 joint projects with the participation of Daimler Trucks and Kamaz. An agreement to implement some of them has been reached. The decision has been made to merge certain volumes of Daimler and Kamaz procurement, to get better conditions from suppliers for the two firms. Besides, the parties have a particular agreement to apply Daimler’s management know-how at Kamaz. The concern’s Truck Operating Systems is part of a Global Excellence programme and is implemented at its plants across the world. The system optimises production management, allowing more flexibility and efficiency. Managers and specialists at Kamaz will study the Truck Operating Systems basics at a plant located in Manheim, Germany, to implement them in the Kamaz production system.

In the course of cooperation, the two parties will exchange developments, production technologies and sales expertise. An additional sales network for Mercedes Benz autos is intended to be later set up using the Kamaz existing dealerships and maintenance centres.

Besides, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, Asia’s leading producer of commercial autos with Daimler AG’s 85-percent participation and JSC Kamaz will before the end of October complete negotiations on setting up an equal-contribution joint venture. The joint venture Fuso Kamaz Trucks Rus will sell Fuso trucks on the Russian market. The production run will be implemented at the Kamaz plant in Naberezhnye Chelny. The joint venture’s administrative office and sales department will be located in Kazan. The company will mostly manufacture and sell the Fuso Canter light-weight trucks.

According to the concern’s executive vice-president and chief of trucks sales department in Europe and Latin America Hubertus Troska, the partnership with Kamaz that has a many-year experience and knowledge of the Russian market’s specifics, as well as the establishing of a joint venture at its base, will give the German firm a strategic advantage. The Mercedes Benz Trucks Vostok enterprise, he said, aims for long-term cooperation, within which the both parties’s expertise will complement and enrich each other.

Kamaz general director Sergei Kogogin says its strategic cooperation with Daimler AG and its truck division strengthens Kamaz’s positions, providing competitiveness on the global market. It should allow Kamaz modernise its production, which should be contributed to by its exclusive partner’s experience, technology and know-how. The setting up of the joint venture enhances cooperation with the German concern.

Daimler AG is one of the global leaders in production of the Premium class cars and is the world’s largest manufacturer of heavy and medium-weight trucks. In 2008, Daimler AG’s sales were 2.1 trillion roubles, while the personnel was 270 thousand people.