Mercedes CEO says to expect major announcement soon

Markus Schaefer, president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, made the comment during his keynote address at the quarterly meeting of the Alabama Automotive Manufacturers Association. He said the announcement will be good news for MBUSI and the state's automotive industry.

Schaefer did not elaborate other than to say the announcement would involve new production. In his speech, however, he noted that the Vance plant 10 years ago was making one model and now will be making five models.

The Mercedes plant started in the late 1990s making the M-Class sport utility vehicle. It later added the R-Class crossover vehicle and the GL-Class full-size sport utility vehicle. Mercedes previously announced that it would begin production of its top-selling C-Class sedans at Vance with the 2014 model year vehicles.

Last month, Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler AG, Mercedes' parent company, said Mercedes committed $2 billion to for future production at Vance. Zetsche, who was in Vance in July with the rest of Mercedes management board for the rollout of the new generation of the M-Class, said then that additional production was planned for plant.

A few days after Zetsche's visit, Automotive News Europe, citing unidentified sources, reported that Mercedes planned to build a new coupe version of the M-Class in Vance.

Any announcement of additional production is expected to be made from Mercedes' headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

In his keynote address, Schaefer talked of the challenges facing the state's automotive industry and said they "go way beyond the borders of Alabama. "

The challenges this year have included the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that disrupted production and delivery of automotive parts, the April tornadoes that affected Alabama automotive production and the global financial problems.

"We have to expect the un-expected and prepare for very volatile situations," he said.

"In the absence of a crystal ball, we have to do more and better planning and be more flexible … We have to try to anticipate what may happen on everything from logistics to financial markets."

New technology will continue to demand rapid changes by automakers and their suppliers.

"The new technology is just around the corner and is no longer 10 years off," Schaefer said.

Suppliers will have to be ready to make new components for new vehicles and be ready to incorporate new materials in their parts, and they will have to be prepared to learn new technologies and not rest on past experience, he said.

"It is tough competition and it is getting more competitive all the time, so we must challenge ourselves to be the best," he said.

About 240 representatives of the state's automotive industry attended the AAMA meeting, which was held at the Bill Taylor Institute, a training center at the Vance plant, to commemorate the association's 10th anniversary.

During the meeting, the AAMA also honored Bernard Schroer of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, who will step down as the group's executive director at the end of the year, and recognized Lewis Drummond, director of work force development at Shelton State Community College as Schroer's successor.

Drummond, who will continue in his duties at Shelton State, said he was able to take on the executive director duties with the support of Mark Heinrich, Shelton State's president.

His two duties complement each other, he said.

A major focus as executive director will be to find and train qualified people to fill the positions of the expanding automotive industry in Alabama and the Southeast, Drummond said. Much of that technical training will be done at Shelton State and Alabama's other community colleges, he said.

The automotive industry is now one of the leading forces in growing Alabama's economy, according to Steve Sewell, executive vice president of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama. Making sure it has enough qualified and trained workers will be a key to its continued success, he said.

The state's auto and engine manufacturing plants are all doing well and the state's supplier companies are going to continue to increase but all will need more workers trained in new technologies, he said.

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