AUBURN HILLS, MI – With 36,000 employees, 100 plants in 21 countries and 2016 sales of $8.4 billion, Gestamp is probably the largest Tier 1 automotive supplier you’ve never heard of.
Expect to hear more about this Spanish multinational that was founded in 1997 in Madrid and is opening eight additional manufacturing facilities this year to expand its presence in body-in-white metal assemblies, chassis components and mechanisms.
Here in Michigan, Gestamp employs nearly 900 people, has two plants (in Mason and Lapeer) and will open a third soon in Washtenaw County for chassis parts, such as control arms, suspension arms, linkages, engine cradles and axle subframes.
Between 2012 and 2016, Gestamp has invested $500 million in its U.S. operations, including its new research and development center here that will employ 64 engineers and technicians and house robotic prototype assembly cells, a laser welding cell, durability performance lab and metallurgical and metrology labs.
Gestamp (short for General Stamping and pronounced “ge-STAMP”) wanted the facility located in Michigan to better serve OEM customers and to share information with 11 other Gestamp R&D facilities around the world.
Competing with the likes of Magna and Benteler, Gestamp has risen to prominence at a time when most Tier 1 suppliers, particularly in the U.S., were distressed, downsizing or struggling with bankruptcy throughout much of the 2000s as the economy slipped into a deep recession.
Its parent company, Gonvarri Steel Services, dates to 1958, but the family-owned company was constantly experimenting with new methods for stamping and cutting steel.
The oldest son, Francisco Riberas, saw an opportunity to add more value with steel components for the auto industry and started Gestamp in 1997 by acquiring a company in northern Spain, now the supplier’s oldest plant.
Gestamp does not fabricate steel but instead purchases it from Gonvarri and other producers. The supplier started out as a low-cost source of stampings but steadily has developed expertise in hot stamping, which allows components to be lighter but more structurally rigid. The company claims hot stamping capability gives it a competitive advantage over its rivals.
“Hot stamping gets you to ultra-high-strength steel levels,” Paul Belanger, Gestamp’s R&D director at the new center here, tells WardsAuto. “We’re forming the steel when it’s red hot, so it’s very malleable at those temperatures. We get very tight radii and good, complex shapes.”
Hot stamping allows a thinner gauge of steel to be used, while still carrying the same load. “Or, if you need to increase safety or strength, you can do it that way,” Belanger says.
Although hot stamping is a bit more expensive than conventional cold stamping, Belanger says his company focuses intensely on finding cost-effective solutions for customers. Gestamp has 75 lines installed for hot stamping and expects to add 10 more by year's end.
The 37,000-sq.-ft. (3,437-sq.-m) R&D center will continue the supplier’s research into additional weight reduction by joining steel with dissimilar materials such as aluminum, carbon fiber and composites.
With additional stamping plants in Tennessee, Alabama, West Virginia and South Carolina, Gestamp serves nearby automakers, namely Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Honda and BMW, as well as the Detroit Three.
When Volvo begins producing S60 sedans at its new plant in South Carolina next year, Gestamp will provide many of the stampings for the body-in-white.
The supplier also has four plants in Mexico, but Gestamp’s strategy is to locate stamping facilities near OEM assembly plants to avoid costly shipping charges.
Its presence in the U.S. began with Gestamp’s 2004 acquisition of Oxford Automotive’s cold-stamping plant in Tuscaloosa, AL. Also in 2004, Gestamp purchased SSAB HardTech, a Swedish company with hot-stamping experience.
Beginning in 2010, the company added two other big German acquisitions with American operations: Edscha and ThyssenKrupp Metal Forming.
But Gestamp’s growth isn’t limited to North America. In Slovakia, where Jaguar Land Rover is about to open a vehicle-assembly plant, Gestamp is co-locating a stamping facility to produce aluminum body parts for the automaker.
