ArvinMeritor Inc will invest about $10 million to build a new axle manufacturing operation in Resende, Brazil, to support MAN’s production of trucks and buses in the region.
On April 15, Georg Pachta-Reyhofen, president and chief executive officer of MAN, announced investments of around $50 million to establish a supplier park in the industrial complex where the brand produces trucks. About 700 new jobs will be created to support the expansion backed by components and systems suppliers ArvinMeritor, Suspensys, and Maxion.
The supplier consortium in Resende, near Rio de Janeiro, will be operational in 2011, one year before MAN launches TGS/X trucks to the Brazilian market. Trucks will be initially assembled from SKD kits imported from Germany with the medium-term objective of 60% local content.
The MAN factory in Resende assembles trucks and buses with the support of an association of suppliers that provide complete components and systems from factories in other parts of the country. ArvinMeritor and Maxion participate in this modular consortium inside the MAN factory. Axles and components supplied by ArvinMeritor are now produced in Osasco, 20 km from São Paulo, and dispatched to Resende.
Starting in 2012, the new ArvinMeritor warehouse and factory will produce axles locally for MAN and VW with components received from its manufacturing facility in Osasco, Brazil.
Suspensys, a 50/50 joint venture between ArvinMeritor and Brazilian company Randon, brings ArvinMeritor technology in brakes and suspensions to the consortium.
