Daimler (IW 1000/15) said Tuesday that to meet strong demand for its new Mercedes A-class model it has called on Finland's Valmet Automotive to provide additional production capacity.
Due to a very positive response, "Daimler will expand production capacities for the model," which is being launched in mid-September, the company said.
"The company thus signed an agreement with the Finnish supplier Valmet Automotive," it said.
Under the terms of the deal, Valmet would produce more than 100,000 autos for Daimler from 2013 through 2016.
Daimler said it had already received more than 40,000 orders for the new compact car which is being built at its factories in Rastatt in Germany and Kecskemet in Hungary.
"Our new compacts are so popular with our customers that the Rastatt and Kecskemet plants are completely utilised," board member Wolfgang Bernhard said.
"We thus signed up Valmet as an experienced production specialist (which) will provide us with additional A-Class capacities as of 2013."
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012
