Renault moves to new production in Cacia – Express

Lucília Monteiro

The new investment of the Renault Cacia, intended for the manufacture of boxes speed of the new generation of the automotive group) French – that will be placed in the new family of vehicles that the alliance Renault-Nissan intends to produce in 2018-2019 – you should go in 2017.

This information had already been revealed to the Express in July by the global director Thierry Koskas. Now this project can come to have a dimension greater, but the Express knows that the management of Renault have not yet taken a final decision on the total amount to invest in Aveiro.

at the time the modernization project Cacia was released to the Express – and has been quoted by the investment agency Aicep – had not yet been initiated, the labour negotiations to this effect. That is, not aware of the response of the management of Renault to the trade union demands on the integration of any workers who supported the production of Cacia.

According to the representatives of the workers, these negotiations have now been completed with success, admitting the possibility of integration of 150 employees within the framework of the Cacia mill. Sources of the French group had already admitted to the Express that a “prize” for good performance at the Cacia mill – elected within the Renault Group as the best in the world in the production of components – could be the reinforcement of your framework of permanent workers.

however, despite being confirmed the intention to proceed with the modernization of Cacia, piping for Aveiro an annual amount greater than the values traditionally invested in the unit, the management of Renault in France have not yet clarified the overall amount that can be achieved in the next 15 years in Cacia. That is, it is not known if formally if the expected value for employees – 150 million euros in the next 15 years – corresponds to the intended project in France for Cacia.

on the one hand, the management of Renault in France has not released the final design for Cacia, and, on the other hand, the value that should be invested in each year may vary in function of the equipment that will be installed in the Cacia to start the manufacturing of new boxes of speed.

in Spite of the boxes of speed represent 70% of the volume of business Cacia, the remaining 30% are obtained with the export of mechanical components such as oil pumps and tree balancing. Exports Cacia provide units of Renault and the brands that have production agreements that work in 14 countries on four continents.

The largest plant in this set of units Cacia provides is the giant factory in russia’s Lada, AvtoVaz, Tolyatti (formerly Stavropol-on-Volga). Located near the Kazakhstan, this factory employs 53 thousand workers (in the time of the Soviet Union came to employ 110 thousand workers).

If the production of this unit are increasing and currently is producing approximately 571 thousand vehicles per year, when has an installed capacity to manufacture one million vehicles per year, or 10 times more than a factory as the volkswagen Autoeuropa in Palmela –, the cadence of manufacture of boxes of speed Cacia could shoot, implying a strengthening in investment, production and number of workers used by the unit of Aveiro, portugal.

This example shows how, in a period of 15 years, the rate of production of the unit Cacia can vary greatly, and in a way that is currently poorly predictable. In the same sense, the Renault started now the production in China, which is a market that can trigger and grow far beyond the initial predictions. For 2016, Renault confirms that it will be achieved the goal of producing three million vehicles throughout the world, and in this numbers is not included the production of the Lada.

The drive Cacia works with a framework of 1016 workers and is managed by the Spanish Juan Melgosa. The local investment has already been reinforced in the modernisation of the production areas with over 10.6 million euros.

In the last decade, Renault has invested over 220 million euros in the Cacia mill, 58 million of which, and only in the last four years. The Renault Cacia manufactures mainly two types of boxes of speed (with five and six speeds), oil pumps, trees, balancing, flywheels, manifolds, crankcases, pine nuts and a diversity of parts to the mechanical components of a variety of models.

The factory of Aveiro produces since 1981 and has invested in the development of R&D to keep a constant update on the technological evolution of the automotive sector. Its largest export markets are France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Romania, Brazil, Chile, Morocco, Iran, and Russia.