Gonzalez Catan Plant

From Sprinter-Wiki

González Catán Location Daimler Argentina S.A. González Catán Plant Ruta Nacional Nro.3 – km. 43.5 González Catán (1759) Buenos Aires, Argentina Phone +49 3378 830 Floor Space 87,600 sq-meters Total Area 138,320 sq-meters Products Sprinter Urban Bus Chassis Employees 1,500 (2006)

   Mercedes-Benz plans to spend US$23 million to increase its production capacity for the Sprinter van by 15% by expanding the painting operation at its Gonzalez Catan plant that in Argentina was completed in 1996. The US$100 million plant has a capacity of 20,000 utility units but a bottleneck in the painting facility reduced the capacity to 18,000. Last year the facility produced 13,300 Sprinters. Some 10,316 were exported to other Latin American countries. The van has a 22% share of the Brazilian market in competition with Volkswagen and the Korean brands. Total export sales projections for 1998 were reduced 10% to 14,160. Production will increase to 17,900. The new work will increase the capacity to 21,000 by March 1999. It will decide on the location to produce a new van between Brazil and the Argentine plant. The unnamed new van will be smaller than the Sprinter. The unit will also be built in Spain. Its production in Mercosur would be about the same as the Sprinter.

Reference

• El Cronista,3/3/98;Argentina;Spanish: "Mercedes-Benz Planning Increased Production of Van in Mercosur."
• Sprinter and Mercedes Van History
• From Daimler Media: http://www.daimlerchrysler.com/dccom/0-5-8794-1-36885-1-0-0-0-0-0-8-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html