São Paulo – This Friday (21), truck manufacturing company MAN Latin America announced that it will invest US$ 562 million in Brazil from 2012 to 2016. The announcement was made during a meeting between the company chairman, Roberto Cortes, and the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, in Brasília. The funds will be allocated by the truck maker to the development of new models and engines, and to research on sustainable technologies.
In a statement issued by the company, Cortes claims that this is the largest single investment ever announced by MAN Latin America in its 30 years of existence. From 1995 to 2011, the company invested 3 billion Brazilian reals (US$ 1.68 billion) in the country. The investment is justified, according to the executive, because MAN has had an “excellent performance” in Brazil, and because there is a potential for growth in the domestic and Latin American markets.
MAN’s plant in Resende manufactures trucks with gross weights from 5.5 to 74 tonnes, but the company intends to enter new market segments as well. The aim is to increase the shares of its MAN and Volkswagen brands on the domestic market, of which it has been a leader for eight years now. MAN acquired Volkswagen Trucks in 2008.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
