Mexico – The company has announced that it will build a new facility at San Miguel de Allende in Guanajuato, where it has been constructing a plant for cylinder-head covers with integrated camshafts since the beginning of the year. Investment in the site will total €150m ($166.7m).
Thyssenkrupp’s components manufacturing complex will cover 200,000 sq.m and is expected to require a 750-strong workforce. Supplies to OEMs in North America are planned to begin in 2017 or 2018. The new facility will produce both active and passive damper systems.
According to Karsten Kroos, CEO of Components Technology at Thyssenkrupp, the new investments are “a key part of our growth and regionalisation strategy”. He added: “On completion of the new components site in San Miguel de Allende, we will more than double the size of our production network in Mexico to altogether eight production sites in just a few years.”
Thyssenkrupp says it has an order backlog for chassis and engine parts, on the back of average annual growth of 8% in the Mexican automotive industry as a whole over the past five years; if it reaches a targeted output of 5m units by 2020, the country could become the sixth-largest vehicle producer in the world. In 2015, Thyssenkrupp’s Components Technology business saw a 17% increase in year-on-year sales to around €1.9 billion.
Since the 1960s, Thyssenkrupp has been manufacturing automotive parts in Mexico for the North American market. Its product range includes engine and steering components, springs and stabilisers, and axle-module assemblies.