The plant of the Algerian company of Mercedes Benz' car manufacturing of Aïn Bouchekif, in the province of Tiaret (340km west of Algiers) was inaugurated Sunday by the Lieutenant General, Ahmed Gaid Salah, Deputy Minister for National Defence, Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army (ANP).
On that occasion, first two cars rolled off the assembly lines where the car assembly process was explained.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Major General Saïd Bey, Commander of the 2nd Military Region and Major General Chouaki Rachid, director of military industries and a number of senior officers of the Army.
The manager for the company production said that in a first stage and in the first years, the plant will manufacture different types of commercial vehicles and 4x4 vehicles destined to civilian usage.
The annual production of this plant is of 6,000 Mercedes Sprinter-branded vehicles destined to all kinds of usages, 2,000 Mercedes-Benz 4x4 G-Class vehicles destined to military and paramilitary usage.
The representative of the German partner has talked about the technology of vehicles manufacturing in this plant which is the same as that used in Germany and Austria. He has also insisted on the transfer of this technology to be adopted by the Algerian labour.
The plant is part of the implementation of the program of economic recovery initiated by President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and the special attention by the Army Command to develop the military industry capacity and meet the needs of the armed forces.
The SAFAV-MB, is a joint venture created in July 2012. It is composed of three main shareholders. The Algerian side holds 51% of stakes.
It is composed of the company of the development in the automotive industry (EDIV) coming under the National Defence Ministry (34%) and SNVI (17%).
The second shareholder is represented by the Emirati investment fund "Aabar" (49%). German group "Daimler" is considered as the technological partner.