GM’s Russia Pullout Cuts Opel Spain Plant’s Output

MADRID – Opel Spain idles its Zaragoza assembly plant for 30 days to reduce Corsa minicar inventories inflated by the Russian economic crisis and parent General Motors’ abandonment of that country’s automotive market.

About 70,000 vehicles assembled in Zaragoza initially were earmarked for Russia. Some of them are being redistributed in other European markets showing greater demand, but nevertheless there is an oversupply and Opel will cut 21,000 units of production during the shutdown.

The Zaragoza plant builds Mokka and Meriva models in addition to the Corsa. The assembly lines will be revamped for production of the new Meriva and the successor to the Citroen C3 Picasso, which GM will produce under an arrangement with PSA Peugeot Citroen. Both models reach the market in 2017.

In 2014, Zaragoza assembled 319,000 vehicles, representing 70% of the plant’s 455,000-unit capacity. The initial 2015 forecast called for production of 400,000 units but was reduced early this year to 388,000. The cutback in Corsa output lowers that figure to 367,000 units, still 15% above the 2014 build.

The shutdown will not take place over 30 consecutive days; management will halt production on selected dates between June 15 and Dec. 31. Unions representing Zaragoza workers have asked management to spread the downtime among the plant’s entire workforce, which would result in an average 12 days off per worker.