OREANDA-NEWS. An important milestone at Daimler and the Romanian subsidiary Star Transmission was celebrated today attended by numerous guests: the ceremonial ground-breaking for a new assembly plant in Sebes was laid in the presence of Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta and representatives from both companies. Starting in 2016 the new Mercedes-Benz 9G-TRONIC nine-speed automatic transmission will be assembled here.

Markus Schafer, Divisional Board Member Mercedes-Benz Cars, Production and Supply Chain Management, said: "The additional assembly capacities in Sebes supplement our production operations at the Mercedes-Benz Unterturkheim plant optimally. They also are an important contributing factor in the economics and the flexibility of our international production network of Mercedes-Benz. With this set-up we will successfully satisfy the continuing increase in demand for automatic transmissions."

Victor Ponta, Prime Minister of Romania: "The expansion of the Sebes location and the connected further investments of Daimler underline that we are on a good way in Romania and have created an attractive investment climate. With this, we aim to further extend our position as an important automotive manufacturing location in Europe and to create further new jobs."

"In Mercedes-Benz' global production network for passenger cars the Unterturkheim engine and transmission plant serves as a center of competence," said Peter Schabert, Head of Production Powertrain and Head of the Mercedes-Benz Unterturkheim plant. "From here the experienced production team has shared its know-how with the Romanian employees as part of a special qualification program over the course of several months. The great teamwork in the international powertrain team strengthens our competitiveness on a sustainable basis."

Automatic transmissions from Mercedes-Benz are manufactured in the flexible production network of the Mercedes-Benz Unterturkheim plant and Star Transmission. The 9G-TRONIC transmission has been produced and assembled at the Unterturkheim parent plant since last year and starting in 2016 this automatic transmission will also be assembled at the Sebes location. Investments in Sebes total more than EUR 300 million, and the capacity expansion at the Romanian plant will create 500 new jobs.