2.13.2018
Gestamp, the Spanish multinational company specialized in the design, development and manufacture of highly engineered metal components for the automotive industry, has announced the acquisition of a plant in the city of Sorocaba, in the state of São Paulo (Brazil).
Gestamp has signed the acquisition of a plant from the local group Scorpios Indústria Metalúrgica Limitada, specialized in the manufacture of metal components in Brazil. The production facility has a workforce of 418 employees and recorded around €27M in revenues (105M Brazilian reals) in 2017. The transaction is subject to the approval of the relevant competition authorities.
The Brazilian plant currently supplies Body in White components to the Japanese OEM Toyota. The acquisition reinforces Gestamp’s stated strategy of growing with Japanese customers, which currently account for approximately one third of global light vehicle production.
In line with this strategy, Gestamp inaugurated a new R&D center in Tokyo at the end of last year. From this leading R&D centre in Japan, Gestamp will be able to co-develop projects jointly with Japanese customers.
In addition, Gestamp is already building a greenfield plant in Japan, which will be the company’s first plant in the country and is expected to start operations in 2018. The plant will be equipped with hot stamping technology, in which the Group is a global leader, which enables to produce lighter and safer vehicles.
Growth with Japanese customers
In 2016, Japanese manufacturers accounted for 7% of the Group’s revenues, a figure that has tripled since 2010. Gestamp manufactures metal components for Japanese OEMs in United States, China, Turkey, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France and Spain.
Gestamp´s Executive Chairman, Francisco J. Riberas, stated that the Company “expects to grow significantly in the coming years with Japanese customers and this acquisition represents a further step into this strategy.” Thus, Riberas added that the company “is always close to the customers, manufacturing where they require it.”
Eight plants in Brazil
With this new acquisition, Gestamp will have eight production plants in Brazil. In 2016, the company recorded revenues of €246M in this market, where it has more than 3,500 employees.
In terms of vehicle manufacturing, Brazil is the ninth largest market worldwide with an annual production of close to 3 million cars per year (IHS). From 2013 to 2016, the production of vehicles in Brazil decreased 40%. After these few years of downturns, the volume of vehicles manufactured in Brazil is recovering since 2016.
Riberas noted that “the Brazilian market is recovering after a few years of slowdown and Gestamp is optimistic about the prospects of this country.” He stressed that, “Brazil will continue to be a very important market in vehicle manufacturing worldwide and the benchmark in the Latin American automotive industry.”