Second BMW NA plant

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BMW to Decide Second North American Plant Location Before Summer Break


It’s been in the news for quite a while now: BMW wants a second North American plant as soon as possible. Calculations seem to approach the final stretch and the management is going to make a decision in this regard, before the summer break, according to CEO Norbert Reithofer.

So far, we’ve heard plenty of stories about where the new manufacturing facility will be built. Despite having diverging opinions on the matter, every speculator out there says the same thing: the country that will be chosen would have to be part of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). That makes the choice easier, reducing it to Canada, the USA and Mexico.

Out of the three, Mexico seems the best choice, due to the cheaper work force, bigger tax exempts it could offer BMW and the position right between the Spartanburg plant in the US and the new one in Brazil.

This would yet another daring move in BMW’s plans to dominate the premium segment. After announcing a ramp up of production in South Carolina of 40 percent, they are now looking for even more production capabilities.

The problem is that none of these plans seem to include Germany. Everything is aimed outside of Europe, where sales have been struggling since 2007, reaching the lowest points in the company’s near 100-year history.

Of course, on an official statement, BMW will always claim that such a move is aimed only at fighting off the competition from Mercedes-Benz and Audi but the lower wages for the workers and reduced taxes they have to pay are also a pretty big incentive to move to new continents.

Furthermore moves could include a second plant in China, in collaboration with their Chinese partner, Brilliance. The new 10-year contract signed this week allows the two companies to work even closer, at least until 2028. And, with the communist country becoming the biggest auto market in the world, profits will probably rise even higher.

 

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BMW Purportedly Set on Mexico Plant, Plans to Be Confirmed Thursday


Talks about a new plant in the Americas for BMW have been going around for quite a while. The German manufacturer, on a number of occasions, said that such a move would bring big benefits on all fronts but up until now, the location was kept secret.

Not any more. According to new info coming in from a government official, quoted by Automotive News. The Mexican official said that BMW will come out and confirm the information on Thursday, July 3. Asked to confirm the rumors, a BMW spokesman said ‘a decision will be made public’.

Corroborated with the fact that BMW said it will make an announcement in Mexico the day after tomorrow, it all starts to make sense now.

Going into deeper details, the Mexican official claims that the investment will add up to at least €1 billion ($1.36 million). As for the exact location, two candidates are battling it out right now, Hidalgo in the Northern part of the country or San Luis Potosi in central Mexico.

Last week, we were reporting that BMW’s CEO, Norbert Reithofer, said an announcement will be made before the summer break. If the confirmation comes in July, it will fit within the schedule, just as stated before.

Various suppliers also claimed that BMW contacted them to set up a production timetable for Mexico. According to them, the production at the new plant should start in late 2017, with the production reaching a capacity of 200,000 units in 2020.

This would be the second big investment for Mexico announced this year, after Daimler AG and Renault-Nissan Alliance said they would invest €1 billion into the North American country as well, to build small cars, to meet the strong demand in the US.

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/b...ans-plans-to-be-confirmed-thursday-83253.html

 

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BMW Group to build new plant in the NAFTA region; production start in 2019

The BMW Group will build a new plant in Mexico in close proximity to the city of San Luis Potosí in the state of the same name. This move is in line with the company’s clear strategic policy of ensuring globally-balanced growth.

“Mexico is an ideal location for the BMW Group and will be another important plant within our production network. We will invest one billion US dollars in the new production site over the next few years. Production is planned to start in 2019 and during that year, the workforce will reach around 1,500 people,” said Harald Krueger, member of the BMW AG Board of Management, responsible for Production.

Over the medium term, several thousand jobs will be created on the plant site and in the surrounding area. The company will announce which BMW models will be built at the San Luis Potosí location at a later date.

“This decision underscores our commitment to the NAFTA region. We have been building BMW cars at our US plant in Spartanburg for the past 20 years. With a planned annual capacity of 150,000 units for the new plant in Mexico, the BMW Group will be even better positioned to take advantage of the growth potential in the entire region,” Krueger said. “The Americas are among the most important growth markets for the BMW Group. We are continuing our strategy of ‘production follows the market’,” he continued.

The company made the announcement at the “Los Pinos” Official Residence of the President in Mexico City today. The ceremony was attended by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexican Secretary of Economy Ildefonso Guajardo Villarreal and the Governor of San Luis Potosí, Dr. Fernando Toranzo Fernández.

Mexico as a competitive manufacturing location within the NAFTA region
The large number of international free trade agreements – within the NAFTA area, with the European Union and the MERCOSUR member states, for example – was a decisive factor in the choice of location. Other crucial advantages were the highly-qualified local workforce, a solid network of established suppliers and the well-developed infrastructure. The BMW Group has maintained good relations with Mexican suppliers for many years and purchased products worth 1.6 billion US dollars locally last year.

The BMW Group has operated a local sales company in Mexico since 1994 and sold a total of 13,992 vehicles in the country in 2013. This represents an increase of almost 18.3% over the previous year. Motorcycle sales for the same period reached 2,064 units (+16.6%).

BMW Group investment in the NAFTA area
The BMW Group already announced a further investment of one billion US dollars at its existing plant in Spartanburg, USA back in March of this year. This will increase that plant’s annual production capacity to up to 450,000 vehicles by the end of 2016 and make Spartanburg the largest plant in the BMW Group’s international production network.

A further 200 million US dollars will be invested to expand the joint venture carbon fiber plant in Moses Lake, Washington. This will triple local production capacity over the long term, making the Moses Lake plant the world’s largest carbon fiber manufacturing facility.

The BMW Group will invest a total of 2.2 billion US dollars in the NAFTA region in the period up to 2019.

In parallel, the BMW Group is currently building a plant in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil. The start of production for the Brazilian plant is scheduled for later this year.

With plants in the US, Mexico and Brazil, the BMW Group will have extensive production capacity at key locations in North and South America.

BMW Group to build new plant in the NAFTA region; production start in 2019