It is the most significant industrial milestone in the automotive sector since Honda inaugurated its Campana plant in 2011.
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Next Friday, May 8, Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Buses will officially inaugurate its new plant in Zárate, province of Buenos Aires.
This is a historic event, since it is the first automotive terminal to build a completely new factory in the country in the last 15 years, a milestone that occurs in the midst of the strong economic growth generated by the Government of Javier Milei.
The plant was built from scratch on a 20-hectare field, with an initial investment of 110 million dollars, and it is a great sign of foreign capital's confidence in Argentina after years of crisis.
President Javier Milei.
The inauguration will be attended by national authorities and international executives from Daimler Truck, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Buses, underlining the strategic weight that the German company assigns to Argentina within its global production
map.
The plant will start with a production shift and will directly employ 500 people, while it is estimated that it will generate another 2,000 indirect jobs between auto manufacturers and suppliers in the value chain.
The new factory will produce two truck models, the Atego and the Accelo, and two bus variants, the OH and THE OF. Its location on Route 9, near the Port of Zárate, responds to a logistical measure that distinguishes it from the historic Virrey del Pino plant, where Mercedes-Benz operated for decades and which came under the control of Prestige Auto, the new local representative of Mercedes-Benz Cars and
Vans in Argentina.
To find a comparable precedent, go back to May 26, 2011, when Honda Motor de Argentina inaugurated its Campana plant, also built from scratch.
The new Mercedes-Benz factory.
Since then, large terminals such as Toyota, Ford, Stellantis and Volkswagen have made significant investments, but all aimed at modernizing and
expanding existing facilities.
In the heavy vehicle segment, the Foton truck plant inaugurated in March 2022 is not an equivalent case either: the Corven Group was based on the old Zanella Hermanos plant, with more than 78 years of history in Caseros. The Mercedes-Benz one, on the other hand, was born out of nowhere.
Daimler Truck's decision to invest of this magnitude in Argentina cannot be read outside the economic context that the country is going through.
Since coming to power, the Government of Javier Milei has promoted a program of deregulation, openness and fiscal balance that already reflects the attraction of foreign investment, with a context of economic growth and falling inflation.
