HELSINKI, March 22 (Reuters) - Finland's Valmet Automotive said on Wednesday it had signed a new contract to build future Mercedes-Benz compact cars for Daimler AG.
The company said it would hire about 1,000 staff to help with its existing contract under which it manufactures Mercedes-Benz passenger cars and SUVs. The plant currently has 2,300 employees.
The facility is one of the bright spots in the Finnish economy which is slowly recovering from a decade of stagnation.
In January, Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd bought a 22 percent stake in Valmet Automotive. (Reporting by Tuomas Forsell, editing by Jussi Rosendahl and Jason Neely)