ISTANBUL - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated Mercedes-Benz Turk's bus manufacturing facilities in Hosdere district of Istanbul on Saturday.
Erdogan said that they were glad to open this important facilities of Mercedes-Benz, stating that Mercedes should also manufacture cars in Turkey.
Recalling that the government put forth some economic and political goals, Erdogan stated that all sectors in Turkey supported their goals.
He stressed that there was a great progress in the automotive sector in Turkey, noting that he expected that exports by automotive sector would reach 15 billion USD this year.
Turkish Industry & Trade Minister Ali Coskun said that Turkey faced economic crises from time to time, but Mercedes continued investing in the country.
The Hosdere plant has an initial production capacity of 3.000 buses a year, and the company plans to increase this to 4.000 buses a year at the final stage. Mercedes-Benz Turk, currently employs 2.200 personnel for bus manufacturing at the Hosdere and Davutpasa Plants.
The Hosdere Plant, presently the most modern bus production facility of the world, has 52.500 square meters covered area built on a total of 326.025 square meters of land. The combination of conveyor belts and stationary working sites (box) instead of the conventional band production provides the necessary flexibility to the plant to produce different models simultaneously and more over, time losses during manufacturing can be minimized.