Enabled to Innovate-Auto, Metro-Shacman Brazilian factory project accelerates

After being enabled to Innovate-Auto, Metro-Shacman accelerates the design of its Brazilian factory, which will be installed in Tatuí (SP). The plant site is promised from 2011 and delayed with the delay in defining an industrial policy for the automotive sector. Now the company is entered in the third category of the automotive system, reserved for companies with investment plans in Brazil (read here).
In an interview with Automotive Business, the Director of business development, mark Gonzalez, revealed that the company's next goal is to approve financing of investment in the BANK. It is not defined which will be the best way to achieve the amount of r $ 400 million planned for the factory. "We Already own resources on the ground and in the hiring of the company that will make the adequacy of the plant to receive the Assembly lines," he says.
According to him, the site has a building which, mutatis mutandis, you will be able to house the production company. So far the company has not yet agreed which will be the participation of the Chinese array in the enterprise. "It may be that their cooperation is not just with money, but with tools, equipment or products. There are some alternatives ", explains the Executive.
Operation and PRODUCTS the company goal is to start operation in the second half of 2014, with production capacity to 5,000 trucks per year. Gonzalez hopes to make 600 units as early as next year. In 2015 that number jumps to 1.5 thousand units. In five years, the annual capacity should jump 30 thousand vehicles. "The line will be deployed in stages. It would be hubris to arrive at once hoping to enter the market with large participation ", he believes.
Metro-Shacman promises to begin activities with a heavy model with 60% local content, with the possibility of financing by BNDES/Finame. From there the national factory should gradually move to produce more models in the current range of the brand in Brazil, which includes five versions, and medium trucks. The way this happens is still under study.
"We are negotiating with traditional suppliers of trucks," said Gonzalez. So far, only Cummins is confirmed. The company already provides the engines of the trucks of the brand in China. Gonzalez admits being in contact with Eaton, Dana, Meritor, Suspensys, among others.
At first the Brazilian factory will cater only to the internal market. Later the Unit intends to meet other countries of Latin America that today care brand trucks produced in China. "It will take some time, since we will produce Euro 5 trucks here and the other countries have different emissions legislations," he recalls.
SALES
At the same time the company works on the development of its network of dealerships, today only with two houses in the Central-Western Brazil. "The third will open soon," anticipates Gonzalez. The sale will be installed in the same region, which, according to the Executive, is where the trucks have the trademark vocation.
The Board is studying the best way to expand the network from now on. Another important issue is how the Metro-Shacman import quotas will take advantage of Innovate. By enabling the program, the company can import trucks 1,250 per semester without paying the additional 30 points in IPI. With the benefit, the company is more likely to raise its sales volume in the country. According to data from Renavam, were only 16 trucks got their plates in the first half of this year.
INVESTMENT in CARUARU In May last year, the Chinese Shaanxi Automobile Group, which owns the Shacman and control of auto parts and engines, announced an investment of r $ 1 billion in Caruaru (Pernambuco). Gonzalez clarifies that the truck factory in Washington does not necessarily mean that the investment has been cancelled. "This project is of the group. They can settle in the region with other companies. "
According to him, the decision to bring the Shacman to Sao Paulo with independent investment dribbled the bureaucratic approval process a plant in Pernambuco. In addition, the Commission points out that, in the Southeast, the company is closer to the consumer market, has good logistical conditions and easy access to suppliers.