TVM, Magna Steyr Sign Up to Cooperation in Vehicle Assembly
Executives of vehicle producers Tovarna vozil Maribor (TVM) and Austria's Magna Steyr signed on Thursday a contract on transferring production of frames for the Mercedes G off-road vehicle's chassis to the Slovenian company.
The contract was signed by TVM director Dusan Meznar and Dieter Schultz, a management board member of the Graz-based company. At the same time the production of the parts was officially launched at the Maribor-based company.
The EUR 35m contract for the vehicles that are assembled in Graz is just the first part of the deal which is to be upgraded in 2007, when the Maribor-based workers would also begin coating the frames with anti-corrosive and surface protection materials.
"The project opens new opportunities and creates new jobs...This is a large logistics and manufacturing project for us," Meznar said at the signing of the deal, which has already created 30 new jobs at TVM.
Schultz meanwhile stressed that the project still faces an uphill struggle, as "we want to increase the daily production from 16 to 27 chassis".
"This is a very important project for us as well as we want to learn how to cooperate with new EU members and the success of this project will determine how much we will increase cooperation in the future," he added.
Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak was also on hand at signing ceremony.
TVM is owned by Ljubljana-based logistics group Viator&Vektor and specialises in development, design, manufacture, assembly and servicing of various buses and multi-purpose trucks.
The company employs 250 workers and expects to generate revenues of SIT 6bn (EUR 25m) this year, which is three times what it made when Viator&Vektor acquired the company in 2004.
This is the second large deal that TVM's managed to land in 2006, having signed a deal with German bus giant Neoplan Bus on cooperation in the making of a new high-tech luxury coach in March.
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