Volkswagen will assemble heavy trucks in Abu Dhabi from 2006. The vehicle manufacturer not yet announced the plant location but has decided that the new assembly line will be supplied with semi-knocked down (SKD) heavy trucks from the Brazilian truck and bus Resende plant.
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Resende already supplies the new Mexican Puebla assembly line with CKD kits and by the second half of 2005 will send also bus and truck CKD kits to a new assembly line in South Africa.
The Abu Dhabi plant capacity will gradually be increased from the initial 1,000 vehicles in 2006 to 3,000 vehicles a year. The investment in the plant is estimated at some €40 million.
At the same time, the formal framework for a holding company in Abu Dhabi has been established. Apart from Volkswagen, state-owned investment companies will own shares in the holding company which will be responsible for the local co0ordination of projects and will also participate in the individual project companies.
According Volkswagen, the holding company will have a 49% interest in the project company for the SKD truck assembly. The remaining 51% will be owned by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.
Volkswagen began truck and bus production in Brazil after buying Chrysler’s local truck division in 1980. In 1996 the company opened a new plant in Resende city, Rio de Janeiro state. The factory works on a ‘modular consortium’ system, where seven suppliers build component modules and assemble the vehicles in the VW-owned plant.
Nowadays, the factory exports vehicles and kits to over 30 countries.
Rogério Louro
