Catalunya’s President Artur Mas, left, speaks with Nissan Motor Iberia’s president Frank Torres after a news conference Feb. 4, 2013 announcing the manufacture of a new car model at the factory in Barcelona.ALBERT GEA/Reuters
Japanese group Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. is to invest €130-million ($178-million U.S.) at its factory in Barcelona to make a new model, the latest sign of returning confidence in Spain's competitiveness.
While Europe's car market has been suffering in the downturn – sales fell to a 17-year low in 2012 and latest data showed little hope for a recovery any time soon, Nissan hopes to benefit from a recent deal with unions on wage cuts.
"This good news … is a result of the competitiveness agreement we reached last week and that we had already said would open doors to new opportunities," Frank Torres, director general of Nissan Motor Iberica, said on Monday.
Nissan will make 80,000 of a new compact family car per year at the Barcelona plant, creating 1,000 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs.
The government has said recent investment by auto makers was a sign that labour market reform, which gave firms more power to hire and fire workers and greater wage-negotiation flexibility, has made doing business in Spain more attractive.
In January, Volkswagen AG became the third car maker in recent months to increase production in Spain.
Nissan also said it would produce 24,000 of its 1-TN pickup model a year in Barcelona, as well as gearboxes for its electric LEAF and eNV200 models. These projects will receive €20-million of the €130-million Nissan is investing in the plant.
The company exports 80 per cent of the cars made in Barcelona. This shields it from a lagging Spanish market, where car sales have plummeted as a result of high unemployment, low consumer confidence and economic uncertainty.
"In coming years, the Barcelona plant will work at full capacity, with annual production of over 200,000 units … Taking into account the current crisis, this is not just an achievement for Nissan but for industry in Spain," Mr. Torres said.
In Spain, the government has introduced a car subsidy program to bolster the market, which remains depressed in a drawn-out recession. Spanish manufacturing activity declined for the 21st straight month in January, but at the slowest pace since June 2011 thanks to increased overseas business, data showed.
Nissan employs 4,700 people in Spain, at three production plants. The company said it would stop producing industrial vehicles and 4x4s at Barcelona because sales have been hit by the ongoing euro zone debt crisis.
Spain's unemployment rate hit 26 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012.