CEBU-BASED Tiger Car Supply Trading has partnered with Daewoo Trucks to build the first truck assembly plant in Cebu in Barangay Tayud, Consolacion.
This new venture is said to generate more jobs for the Cebuanos, provide business opportunities for other industries and make the Korean-branded Daewoo Trucks more accessible in the Visayas and Mindanao market, said Roger Crisologo, owner and president of South Tiger and Tiger Car Supply Trading.
Tiger Car Supply Trading is the first distributor of Daewoo Trucks in Central Visayas. South Tiger, on the other hand, is the marketing arm of Tiger Car.
The company officially launched on Wednesday, April 20, 2022, Daewoo Maximus, one of its locally assembled trucks. It also showcased the Daewoo fire truck it assembled for the local government unit of Consolacion.
The truck assembly plant sits on a one-hectare property in Tayud. Roger said the plant can assemble up to 80 truck units a month.
Tiger Car and Daewoo Trucks inked partnership for the assembly plant two years ago. Since then, the partnership has already assembled 30 units of trucks that are used in the construction and transport sectors, even government vehicles.
“Instead of importing completely built Daewoo trucks from Korea, we are importing it as parts and assemble it here... By assembling it here, we are creating jobs and helping the local industries here by outsourcing some non-critical parts like steel and paint, enabling us to help the local economy,” said engineer Steven Crisologo, operations manager of Tiger Car Supply Trading.
He added that this new venture would help give birth to locally assembled truck industry in Cebu.
“This is a good opportunity for Cebu so that we will not be more reliant to industries like tourism, among others,” said Steven.
Looking forward, Roger said they are eyeing to source more materials locally so that they could help other industries flourish and help create employment.
At present, Tiger Car Supply Trading employs 30 workers in its assembly plant but the numbers are expected to increase as soon as the plant goes full-blast in its operation.
“As we proceed with the development of the plant and slowly integrate the technology that is passed down to us, we will slowly create more jobs,” said Steven, adding that as soon as they can start “localizing” other parts they can hire more welders, painters and mechanics to do the job.
Tiger Car also hired one of Daewoo’s research and development (R&D) heads to be part of the R&D team in Cebu to ensure that the quality of Daewoo Trucks is sustained and that the local parts used are of global standards.
Besides Cebu, Daewoo Trucks also has assembly plants in Russia, South Africa and in the Asean. Prior to Tiger Car, the Korean firm had a local partner based in Manila. (KOC)