Nissan will close its Barcelona plant, according to the Japanese press

Nissan will close its Barcelona plant 

according to the Japanese newspaper Nikkei. The facility generates 3,200 direct and 25,000 indirect jobs. His employees have been on an indefinite strike since last week. Management sources consulted by ABC declined to comment on the news and referred to what can be reported on May 28, when the multinational plans to present its strategic plan.

According to Reuters , the aforementioned plan will lay the foundations to reduce its presence in Europe to focus on North America, China and Asia. Nissan would choose in parallel to reduce the manufacturer's current production capacity from seven million units to five and a half million. The Minister of Business of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Àngels Chacón, has claimed in declarations to Efe "loyalty and clarity" to Nissan, although he revealed that this Tuesday he contacted the president of Nissan in Europe and the CEO of the plant Nissan in Barcelona and that both told him that the decision " was not made ."

Despite these considerations, the discouragement among the unions is evident, aware that the most pessimistic omens , after successive exercises in production cuts, could be confirmed.

Last year, the Barcelona plant manufactured some 55,000 units, 10% of the multinational's manufacturing in Europe, which is mainly concentrated in a large facility in Sunderland, in the United Kingdom. If the closure is confirmed, the production of the Barcelona factory, which currently produces the Navara pick up and versions of it for Renault (Alaskan model) and Mercedes (Class X), in addition to the e-NV200 electric van, would be derived, again according to Nikkei, to other factories of its partner Renault .

The Barcelona plant, formed by a vehicle assembly facility in the Zona Franca and two satellites in Montcada and Sant Andreu, resumed its activity on May 4, but stopped two days later due to the indefinite strike called by the staff, precisely motivated for fear that the facilities will be closed permanently. Among the unions, it aroused suspicions that the multinational wanted only to reactivate the line of pick-ups, to finish an order for Class X, a model that will cease to take place this May.

Against the Barcelona facility, it plays that it barely operates below 30% of its capacity, an unaffordable level for any facility, after losing in recent years models such as the compact Pulsar. Last year, Nissan announced an investment of seventy million euros (in exchange for an agreement with the unions to reach 600 voluntary departures) for the construction of a new paint plant, essential to continue operating from 2023, when a new European regulations will prohibit the use of solvents. In October, the Generalitat of Catalonia gave the green light to a grant of three million euros, distributed between 2020, 2021 and 2022, for this purpose. And last January, the Prime Minister,Pedro Sánchez , assured, after meeting with the leadership of the Renault Nissan Alliance at the Davos Forum, that the maintenance of employment at the plant "is guaranteed."

However, the car has suffered a strong impact from the coronavirus , which has forced to keep both car factories and dealerships closed for several weeks, first in China and then in Europe and the United States. In the case of Nissan, it closed its last fiscal year (March 31) with losses that could be around 818 million euros, a figure that very much rectifies the initial forecasts, which spoke of a net profit of 65,000 million. yen, about 561 million euros.

With the aim of reducing costs and revitalizing their alliance, Nissan and Renault want to increase the percentage of common elements in their vehicles from 40 to 70% , according to Nikkei. To do this, they would adopt common platforms, and join efforts to develop their future electrified models. Significantly, Renault has launched models this year with a new hybrid technology of its own development, e-Tech, while Nissan has worked in parallel on its own technology, e-Power, which it also planned to market in Europe.

Repatriation of models to France

In this context, the French Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire , advanced at the beginning of the week in a radio interview that will ask French manufacturers for a plan to repatriate part of their production from third countries in exchange for an aid plan, with incentives to purchase vehicles. The French government is also working on a loan of 5,000 million euros for Renault, which was already going through a difficult economic situation before the coronavirus, aggravated after the arrest of its former CEO, Carlos Ghosn , also Nissan's top executive, in Japan.

Currently, Renault owns 43.7% of Nissan, while Nissan has 15% of Renault, although without voting rights. In turn, the French state owns another 15% of Renault. However, although Renault has controlled Nissan since 1999, the business relationship cooled after Ghosn's arrest. The latter subsequently accused the company and the Japanese government of an "unlawful pact" to expel him from the management of the company.

Renault plants in France are well positioned to attract new Nissan launches in Europe. The Douai factory will produce two versions on the CMF_EV platform , on which Nissan wants to market its future electric SUV, based on the Ariya concept car that was unveiled at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. In fact, this Thursday Reuters has unveiled that said factory would stop manufacturing the Espace, Scenic and Talisman models to concentrate on the production of two new Alliance models with an electric platform.

On the other hand, Renault has already adapted its factory in Maubeuge to produce the third generation of the Kangoo van and its ZE electric variant, which could serve as the basis for the substitute for the Barcelona e-NV200. Currently, a derivation for Nissan of the second generation of the Kangoo, dominated NV250, is already on the market, occupying the niche of the combustion alternatives of the Barcelona van, which were discontinued last year.

Nissan's company committees will meet tomorrow Friday with representatives of the Generalitat's Department of Labor, which has convened them to address the conflict of the company's plants in Barcelona, ​​according to Efe. So far, the centrals have not wanted to "echo" the news, which, they say, "may be interested leaks to destabilize the strike," and demand that the management put their cards on the table at once.

According to the CC.OO union, the committees will explain to the Govern that they demand Nissan to guarantee the jobs of the plants it has in Catalonia and in the rest of Spain, and will denounce the violation of the right to strike by the multinational Nippon, which motivated that last Tuesday they filed a lawsuit against the management . The plants criticize that the workers affected by the strike, which has only focused on the Montcada satellite plant (leaving the main plant in the Free Trade Zone without parts), have been reincorporated into the ERTE started due to the coronavirus.