Vibracoustic

Weinheim/Bursa, 13. March 2013 |

Joint Venture for truck & bus air springs

TrelleborgVibracoustic and HSS Otomotiv join forces in commercial vehicle air springs business.

TrelleborgVibracoustic and HSS Otomotiv yesterday signed a joint venture contract in Hamburg to merge their busi­ness for commercial vehicle air springs. The new company “VibracousticBlacktech” will be head­quartered in Hamburg, Germany. With its well established “air cruise” and “Blacktech” brands it will serve OEM customers as well as the Independent Aftermarket (IAM) on a global scale. The joint venture agreement is subject to the approval of the anti-trust authorities.

“Due to its complementary product and customer portfolio, the new joint venture “VibracousticBlacktech” is a perfect fit. Together, we can offer the broadest range of air springs in the commercial vehicle market. As a development partner, we will be able to pro­vide our customers with both tailor made solutions for OEM applications and guaran­teed qual­ity products for all stages of the vehicle’s life cycle. By combining our respective process and manufacturing know-how for premium OEM air springs with an extensive range of Aftermarket solutions, we can offer products which fulfill our customers’ expecta­tions regarding high per­formance at competitive cost for truck, trailer and bus applications including chassis, cabin and seat air springs”, said Hans Jürgen Goslar, speaker for the board of management of TrelleborgVibracoustic.

“The strong engineering capabilities of TrelleborgVibracoustic will enable us to offer our customers in the OEM as well as in the IAM segment innovative products for various appli­ca­tions. Together, we will be even more flexible in anticipating our customers’ demands in the highly competitive commercial vehicle air springs market. Especially our end custom­ers, the fleet operators, are confronted with the need to continuously reduce cost in face of rising fuel prices and increased cross-border com­petition. With our joint venture, we will be able to realize economies of scale and supply exactly the right air springs for each segment”, said Ramazan Sahin, Chairman of the Board of HSS Otomotiv.

The new joint venture will have operations and tech centers in Germany, Turkey, Hungary, the United States and China with about 600 employees worldwide. Additionally, a strong sales organization is a sustainable basis to leverage the opportunities of the aftermarket. TrelleborgVibracoustic will hold 50.1 percent of the shares, HSS Otomotiv/Blacktech 49.9 per­cent. The deci­sion of the anti-trust authorities is expected in the coming weeks.

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