Atlantis Foundries continues to fly the South African flag beyond the clouds

Inspired by South Africa’s potential, and driven by its intent to drive localisation to contribute to the acceleration of the country’s economic development. In 2020, Daimler Truck, one of the world’s largest truck and bus manufacturers obtained full ownership and control of Atlantis Foundries – previously known as Atlantis Diesel Engines (ADE). Since its modest beginnings in 1979, Atlantis Foundries has seen a multitude of takeovers, acquisitions, and restructurings - one particular being the acquisition by Daimler Truck from the year 1999 to 2015.

In the intervening years, Atlantis Foundries charted remarkable growth and accumulated a history as rich as the country of its origin. Today, the state-of-the-art production plant is highly recognised as one of the leading South African-based manufacturers of medium to heavy-duty engine blocks in the world. Building onto the list of phenomenal brands and/or companies that make South Africa beam with pride with their “Proudly made in South Africa and exported to the world” products.

Andreas Moch, Director Daimler Truck Mannheim Production Plant had this to say about their locally based production facility: “South Africa remains integral to Daimler Truck’s global business footprint and we are honored to have entered into a long-term partnership with Atlantis Foundries. The strategically located first-class production facility in Cape Town makes business sense for us as it provides us with the additional capacity we need to continue to meet the demands of a changing global market. I am proud to say that we have a solid working relationship to ensure seamless day-to-day operations and our journey continues as we together slowly crawl toward a more sustainable future”.

Since becoming an intrinsic part of the Daimler Truck family together with its sister company called Mannheim Foundry based in Germany, Atlantis Foundries has subsequently expanded its global footprint and exports to America and Europe. With its 940,000m2 production facility situated approximately 50 kilometres north of Cape Town and 55 Kilometres from the Cape Town International Airport. The first-class plant manufactures in excess a gross melting capacity of 100 000 tons per annum and predominantly supplies for Mercedes-Benz Actros, FUSO, and Freightliner Cascadia Evolution product range.

Cordell Rautenbach, Senior Manager: Technical Engineering Atlantis Foundries comments on the partnership with Daimler Truck: “It is indeed a privilege for us to be under the umbrella of one of the giants in the industry. One cannot overlook the added advantage of our corporate partner in Daimler Truck, which gives us the financial and any other backing we require to further boost our business in South Africa and fulfil our customer’s business needs. Our ongoing collaborative efforts are certainly the ingredient to the long-term success of Atlantis Foundries, we understand that “no block, means no truck”. We continue to maintain the global standards that Daimler Truck is renowned for through constantly improving our operational excellence and skillset”.

As a locally based production company and an employer of nearly 842 people to date, Atlantis Foundries understands that the business cannot grow sustainably without deliberately investing in skills development to ensure the required skillset. It is for this reason that the company has taken to heart the responsibility of harnessing talent in the communities within which it operates through a number of comprehensive annual internships, learnerships, apprentices, and education subsidies within the various fields in the organisation.

 

Media enquiries:
Lisanda Mcetywa
Tel: 012 677 1792
Cell: 076 236 4781
e-mail: lisanda.mcetywa@daimler.com