Mercedes-Benz sees the departure of a record consignment of 3 280 locally built Mercedes-Benz C-Class cars from SA’s East London port today. The largest single shipping consignment from Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) is destined for the United States. Even more noteworthy is that MBSA loaded its 100 000th Mercedes-Benz C-Class for export to the US – a milestone in our South African vehicle export history.

Rainer Ruess, manufacturing site leader at MBSA’s local automotive plant said “this shipment reaffirms that US customers are very satisfied with the South African build quality.” In July, J. D. Power and Associates presented the platinum Award for Initial Quality to the MBSA plant, following a US survey conducted among over 80 000 new US car owners earlier this year. The local plant was thus named the best plant in the world – best among all brands and manufacturers serving the US.

Terry Taylor, corporate affairs manager of Transnet National Ports Authority remarked that the recent deepening of the west quay at the East London harbour had reaped immediate benefits. “The new depth allows more flexibility for larger vessels. Together with this we also added another 1 200 parking bays in close proximity to the quay-side. The total cost of the development was just over of R40 million”.