GM’s Launch of Mokka Assembly Begins Zaragoza Plant’s Revival

MADRID – Production of the Opel Mokka is under way at General Motors’ Zaragoza (Figueruelas) plant, following a months-long complicated and detailed retooling.

The target is to assemble about 20,000 units of the small CUV this year, increasing output to 70,000-80,000 in 2015, as GM seeks to reduce the long order-to-delivery times that have resulted from the Mokka’s strong market reception.

Until now, the model has been built solely at GM’s Incheon, South Korea, plant.

On Nov. 10, Zaragoza will launch the new Opel Corsa small car, with output forecast at 200,000 in 2015. That would bring total plant production to 400,000 units next year, well above the 321,000 builds scheduled for 2014.

The Mokka shares a line with the Opel Meriva, launched earlier this year, and joins the mix along with the 3- and 5-door versions of the current Corsa produced on a second line.

GM Spain says a key retooling challenge was to ensure the plant’s flexible automation would work with both the Meriva and new Mokka, which do not share platforms.

In 2016, Zaragoza will begin assembling the new Meriva multipurpose vehicle, as well as the Citroen C3 Picasso for France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen. At that point the facility, highly underutilized for several years, should reach full capacity of about 485,000 units per year.

Local production of the Mokka is expected to benefit suppliers as well, with an estimated 15,000 spin-off jobs resulting. Initially, the Mokka with be assembled entirely from complete-knocked-down kits, but GM is moving to add local content.

GM Spain General Manager Antonio Cobo says local content of 40% will be targeted once mass production is launched.

Indeed, logistics may pose the biggest challenge to Mokka assembly at Zaragoza as a result of the heavy reliance on CKD kits.

Every week, Mokka components are packaged in Incheon and shipped in 400 Maersk containers that are received later in Barcelona Harbor, after a sea travel of two and a half months. If necessary, Valencia Harbor also could be used to receive the Incheon shipments.

Using the good rail connection between Barcelona and Zaragoza, the containers are sent to Maritime Terminal of Zaragoza (TMZ), a dry or inland seaport operated by Mercazaragoza that, with the activity generated by the Mokka, will become the second-most-important Spanish inland port.

In TMZ, the maritime containers are transferred to truck and sent by road to a deconsolidation center installed in a 323,000-sq.-ft. (30,000-sq.-m) operation by Grupo Sese, a Spanish logistics and road-transport conglomerate, where the containers are unloaded and their contents warehoused.

From there, Grupo Sese, controlling the stock, feeds the Zaragoza line with the components and systems needed for Mokka production every four to eight hours.