Daimler to invest $170 million in Buenos Aires plant

Daimler's commercial vehicles business plans to invest about $170 million over the next two to three years in its plant in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The German company sees much potential in Argentina thanks to the country's robust economic growth in recent years, Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said in a statement after a meeting with Argentina President Cristina Kirchner.

The Buenos Aires plant, built in 1951 and named after five-times Formula 1 champion Juan Manuel Fangio, was Daimler's first factory outside Germany. The new investment will create 850 jobs, boosting the plant's workforce by 40 percent.

More than 200,000 Sprinter vans, 180,000 trucks and 100,000 buses have rolled off the assembly lines in Buenos Aires.

Daimler, the world's biggest truck manufacturer, operates two other manufacturing sites in Latin America. It builds trucks in Juiz de Fora and Sao Bernardo do Campo in Brazil.

(Reporting By Christiaan Hetzner; Editing by David Goodman)