Alexandre Rocha
São Paulo – DaimlerChrysler Brazil is going to export 150 Mercedes-Benz buses to Saudi Arabia. The company has not yet announced when the vehicles will be shipped, neither what company will be supplying the bodies. However, the company has stated that the chassis produced in Brazil will be the O 500 M model, for urban use or charter, which may receive a body of up to 13.2 metres.
Exports are part of a greater contract closed on October 31 by the Saudi Arabian Public Transport Company (Saptco) and company Al-Juffali & Bros, which represents the Mercedes-Benz brand in the country.
The accord, signed by the Saptco president and Saudi deputy Transportation minister, Abdullah Al-Muqbil, and by the president of Al-Juffali & Bros, Khaled Al-Juffali, also involves the purchase of a lot of 450 buses, for the value of US$ 80 million.
According to information published on site Menareport.com, Saptco is the largest land passenger transport company in Saudi Arabia, and currently has a fleet of 2,700 buses.
The remaining vehicles in the contract will be supplied by the Mercedes factory in Turkey, according to a company spokesperson. DaimlerChrysler Brazil had already sold a lot of 150 buses to Saptco in July last year.
The Mercedes subsidiary in Brazil exports fairly regularly, not only to Saudi Arabia, but also to other Arab countries. The company hoped to sell 2,000 vehicles to the region this year.
In general, according to information provided by the company itself, DaimlerChrysler Brazil should produce 49,000 vehicles up to the end of the year, among them buses and trucks made in their factory in São Bernardo do Campo, in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, the largest business centre in South America. Of the total, 17,000 units should be exported.
