Brazil’s development bank BNDES has approved a US$123.5mn loan for DaimlerChrysler do Brasil to export 500 buses to Chile.

The financing stems from BNDES’s exim ps embarque (post-shipment) programme and amounts to 100% of the export value.

The Brazilian-made vehicles are part of the Transantiago project, while the importer is Buses Metropolitana, based in Santiago.

Trucks, buses and automobiles are churned out from three DaimlerChrysler plants in Brazil. The company’s operations in the South American country exported US$1.3bn of buses, trucks and engines in 2005.