At the end of the year, VW will double the rate of box production in Córdoba Business

At the end of the year, Volkswagen’s Córdoba Industrial Center plans to reach a production rate of 1,300 gearboxes per day, almost double compared to the current 700 units a day.

It is the first plant in Latin America of the German group to return to work after the quarantine by the coronavirus that affects much of the world.

After being enabled by the Emergency Operations Center (COE), for which it adapted the biosecurity protocols that it implements globally, it returned to activity at the end of April, with just over 200 operators and at a rate of 300 units daily .

It currently has 700 active workers, out of a total of 1,650 that the German company has in Córdoba, and a new round of incorporations is expected at the end of July, always depending on sanitary restrictions and the demand for gearboxes in the world. , since it exports all its production.

These days, it produces 700 units of the MQ-250 and MQ-200 boxes. Starting next week, it will begin manufacturing the new MQ-281, which, like the previous ones, is destined for export, in this case to Mexico, Portugal, Poland and India.

In three weeks, the new gearbox will go abroad and at the end of the year it is expected to reach a production rate of 600 units per day, with which, in total, the plant will produce 1,300 units per day.

These projections depend, to a large extent, on the world market recovering and that the new coronavirus pandemic does not impede productive activity.

Information on the work plan at the Córdoba plant was provided yesterday by who since this year is the director of the Cordovan plant, Marcus Gorisch, who replaced Carlos Testa. He did so in the framework of the visit of the president of Volkswagen Argentina, Thomas Owsianski, and the director of public and legal affairs of the company, Angela Stelzer.

The managers toured the plant and held virtual meetings with the Province’s Minister of Industry, Eduardo Accastello, and with the Secretary of Industry, Fernando Sibilla, as well as with the dealer network in Córdoba.

Even with this recovery planned for the end of the year, the plant will not reach the productive capacity demonstrated in 2019, when it manufactured 730 thousand gearboxes. If you had worked every day last year, the average rate would be 2,000 units a day.

Recovery market

Volkswagen will present today in the country the Nivus model, a B-segment SUV car (smaller than traditional SUVs) with which it seeks to consolidate its leadership in the national market, with 15 percent participation.

But Owsianski clarified that there is still a lot of uncertainty and avoided making projections.

“Volkswagen currently has 70 percent of its active dealerships; only from next week we will have a clearer picture of what will happen to the market, “he said.

The German group integrates the Association of Automotive Factories (Adefa), which, together with the Association of Concessionaires of the Argentine Republic (Acara), work with the national government in the creation of a stimulus plan for the sale of vehicles 0 kilometers to revive the market.

In just two years, patenting in Argentina fell from more than 800,000 units in 2018 to almost 250,000, which is the figure the market expects for this year.

Meanwhile, Owsianski confirmed the continuity of the Tarek project, a new SUV that he is developing at the Pacheco plant, in the province of Buenos Aires, and that he will present in May 2021.

To start these projects, the company invested 840 million dollars, of which 650 million went to the Buenos Aires plant; 150 million, to the factory in Córdoba, and another 40 million, to a spare parts and accessories distribution center in Fátima, Buenos Aires province, and in a data center own.

Factory operators

42% Volkswagen’s Córdoba Industrial Center currently works with 42 percent of its plant personnel. This is part of the agreements with the COE to return to business without generating too much personnel movement.