Ford Spain Plant Becomes Nexus of European Output

MADRID- Ford’s plant in Almussafes, Spain, this year will become the automaker's leading assembler of models for the European market.

“Our record investment has transformed this plant into a top-level global facility, one of the most modem and flexible plants Ford has,” CEO Mark Fields says during a recent visit.

The automaker has invested €2.3 billion ($2.64 billion) in the factory on Spain's Mediterranean coast since 2011, raising annual capacity 40% to this year's target of slightly more than 400,000 units. Maximum capacity is 450,000.

The Almussafes facility is the European market's exclusive producer of the new Ford Mondeo as well as the Kuga, Transit Connect and Toumeo Connect. It is the first Spanish auto plant to assemble a hybrid model - the Mondeo Hybrid. Exclusive production of newS-Max and Galaxy lineups will be added this year.

“With the recent Ford investments, Almussafes' workforce has increased from 5,000 jobs in 2013 to the current 8,000 jobs inducing an important increase of activity in its suppliers park, adding 1,500 new jobs, and the regional economy, with more than 9,000 indirect jobs in this moment,” says Ford Spain CEO Jose Machado, who accompanied Fields, Spanish President Mariano Rajoy and other officials on the visit.

The Almussafes plant opened in 1976, assembling the first-generation Fiesta. Since then, more than 11 million vehicles and 15 million engines have been produced there.

Since 2011, more than 900 robots have been added to the assembly lines. A 958,000-sq.-ft. (89,000-sq.-m) body workshop with daily production capacity of more than 2,000 units opened eight months ago and Ford has built an additional paint workshop using an automated process that avoids the wait time for drying of the different paint layers.

Some 80% of Almussafes' output is exported not only to European markets, but also to the U.S. Machado says Ford Spain is targeting 90,000 sales in its home market in 2015, up 25% more than in 2014.

Fields notes Ford's ongoing reorganization of its European operations allowed the automaker to reduce its losses 26% in 2014 to about €940 million ($1.1 billion), although it does not expect to be profitable in 2015, due mainly to unfavorable interest rates and the collapse of the Russian market.

Jim Farley, vice president and president-Ford Europe, Middle East and Africa, says total car sales in Europe could grow from 14.8 million in 2014 to 15.3 million in 2015. “In this landscape, Ford wants to reach a moderate growth,” he says.

Fields says Ford's goal is to move up from the world's sixth-biggest automaker to No.5, a position now held by Nissan. He adds, “Volume is important, but profitability is more important.”