Mercedes-Benz South Africa is worried about the possible air pollution from a planned coal export terminal in East London and the impact of this on the paintshop at its manufacturing plant in the city.

Dr Martin Zimmerman, MBSA CEO and president said that having the export terminal in the vicinity of MBSA’s East London plant could lead to air pollution that would cause additional risk to its manufacturing operations.

The MBSA East-London plant needs to maintain the highest possible standards, especially in the ramp-up to the manufacturing of the new generation C-Class, in production terms still called the W205, that will be manufactured in East-London from 2014.

The company will invest more than R2bn in total to get the plant ready for the new generation C-Class, already investing BRR 371 million in 2011 with BRR 721 million to follow this year and the balance in 2013.

The high quality standards also count for the paintshop and Zimmerman indicated that pollutants in the air which can be caused by the loading and off-loading of coal at the terminal, could impact on the quality achievable.

He indicated that there has been some consultation with the other stakeholders on the establishment of the coal terminal, but believes that the issue is around how you assess the impact of such a facility. He said “We couldn’t have that type of pollution. We can’t handle it in the paintshop.”

Mercedes-Benz is one of the largest employers in the East-London area with over 2 400 employees and jeopardizing its ability to manufacture the C-Class for export would also jeopardize those who are employed by the company.

(Sourced from www.moneyweb.co.za)