14 Dec 07 Daimler confirms Indian trucks joint venture

German automotive group Daimler confirmed Friday plans to set up a joint-venture truck factory in India with the Munjal family’s Hero Group.

It said in Stuttgart the unit would initially make light, medium and heavy Mercedes trucks for the Indian market but later produce for export too. The creation of the venture would be completed in first quarter of 2008.

The company had earlier announced a bus joint venture with Sutlej Motors of India and is building an own factory in Pune to assemble Mercedes-Benz cars.

Hero, which has 4 billion dollars in annual sales, already has a joint motorcycle venture with Honda of Japan.

On Thursday, the Indian newspaper Business Standard, said the deal with Hero had been preceded by vain talks with India’s third-largest truck maker, Eicher Motors. Volvo announced earlier this week a venture with Eicher.

Daimler and Volvo are the two main players in the European trucks industry.

Daimler meanwhile disclosed that its main truck plant, at Woerth, Germany, had ceased production Thursday afternoon after it ran out of parts. A spokeswoman said the line would resume production on Monday.

An unconfirmed report in the newspaper Rheinpfalz said a castings maker had been unable to keep up supplies. The spokeswoman declined to confirm this.