Mercedes-Benz has established a business in Vietnam for the purpose of Importing vehicles.
Tuoi Tre has suggested that the company may be looking to move from assembling its vehicles in Vietnam to importing them instead. This is notable in that the company currently has an assembly factory in Ho Chi Minh City but has had trouble extending its lease which was set to expire next year.
The assembly factory was established in 1995 on a 30 year lease set to expire next year but there have been bureaucratic problems with extending the lease that has meant the factory has had to slow production and there were reports back in August it might shut down altogether.
It’s also worth considering that the business environment in Vietnam has changed a lot since 1995. Vietnam now has free trade agreements with a number of countries, its ASEAN commitments have made it much cheaper to import cars than it was before the agreement came into place.
Currently in Southeast Asia, which is covered by the ASEAN Trade in Goods and Services Agreement, there are Mercedez manufacturing facilities in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and of course, Vietnam.
See also: Automotive Industry in Vietnam