KARACHI, Dec 13: Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company (TDCV) of Korea here on Monday signed a technical assistance agreement (TAA) with a local company for assembling Korean trucks in Pakistan.

The agreement was signed by Chae Kwang, president of TDCV, and Muhammad Ghufran, chief executive of Afzal Motors Private Limited. The ceremony was also attended by Chandra Vir Singh, vice-president, and M.S. Jung, director, Overseas Business Division of TDCV.

A senior executive at Afzal Motors told Dawn that the company would launch 4X2 and 6X4 truck tractor initially in completely built up (CBU) and start local assembly of the vehicle by the end of 2006.

He said the company aimed at producing 800 vehicles in the first year of its operation at its National Highway plant where it had invested Rs500 million and was currently rolling out Daewoo buses in collaboration with Daewoo Bus Corporation.

The executive said that the assembly plant had the capacity to produce 3,000 trucks on a single shift basis and added that it would apply to the Engineering Development Board (EDB) for the approval of deletion programme.

Prior to the entry of the Korean company in the country, Hinopak, Nissan, Dong Feng, Master and Isuzu are the old and new players. The production of trucks in July-June 2004-05 went up by 58.46 per cent to 3,204 units from 2,022 units in 2003-04. During July-October 2005, truck production stood at 263 units as compared to 160 units in the same period of 2004.

The production of trucks has been on the rise owing to positive economic indicators and rising activities of cargo movement both for import and export in the country.

Daewoo truck manufacturing company was started in Korea in 1973 and during the last 30 years, it remained a major player in the Korean heavy-duty truck market. In early 2004, Tata Motors Ltd of India took over Daewoo Truck Company and now it is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Motors and renamed as TDCV.