German carmaker Daimler's new investment at Sebes, in Romania, will be inaugurated on July 29, according to Dan Sova, the Minister delegate for Infrastructure Projects and Foreign Investments. Sova recently accompanied Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta on his visit to Germany, where he also visited the Daimler factory in Stuttgart. Ponta met Andreas Renschler, member of the Daimler board, and a group of Romanian workers who were in Germany taking courses at the parent company.

In a first stage, Daimler will have 300 new employees in Romania, and the staff base may be expanded in two – three years.

The German carmaker plans to invest some EUR 300 million in its Romanian subsidiary Star Transmission, expanding local production. The agreement between the Romanian state and Daimler has already been signed.

The Government did not announce however the nature of the support or what the agreement included. Pending support from the Romanian state, Daimler previously said it plans to start production of a its new generation of automatic transmissions for cars at its Sebes plant in Romania.

Daimler's decision to add a production facility in Romania comes to supplement production as Daimler's Stuttgart factory has reached maximum capacity. Star Transmission has two production units in Romania, at Cugir and at Sebes, where 800 employees have been manufacturing components for motors and transmission systems for all Mercedes-Benz cars since 2001.

Daimler will start production of the 5-speed automatic transmission from the middle of this year at the new location in Sebes until its discontinuation. Starting in 2014, the current generation of front dual clutch transmissions will also be assembled there. “The expansion of our production network is include an additional location for transmission assembly is designed to perfectly complement our existing capacities,” said Andreas Renschler, Member of the Daimler Board of Management for Manufacturing and Procurement Mercedes-Benz Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Victor Ponta on Facebook; image from Daimler's Stuttgart factory)