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From South Africa to Indiana: all investments by Stellantis (increasingly distant from Italy)

1 year ago babelfish

From South Africa to Indiana: all investments by Stellantis (increasingly distant from Italy)

From South Africa to Argentina, via Turkey and Indiana: all Stellantis operations in the four corners of the globe

Something is also moving in Italy. During a visit to the Lazio site of Cassino, currently dedicated to premium and luxury models (the Alfa Romeo Giulia and Stelvio to which the Maserati Grecale is added), the CEO of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares , announced the expansion of activities with "the production of" unspecified "vehicles based on the Stla Large platform".

But there are still many Italian plants ex Fiat, ex FCA waiting to know information about their fate. Stellantis has signed a new agreement with the Italian unions Fim, Uilm, Fismic and Ugl on future incentivized exits, which excludes the "possibility of forced redundancies". The agreement will concern a maximum of 2,000 employees (about 4.4% of the 47,000 employees), will be operational until 31 December and will mainly involve people not directly involved in production activities and operating in the central Mirafiori bodies and in the commercial sector outside Turin .

For several observers, after the marriage with Psa, the Group gradually moved away from our country. What is certain is that the news of investments far from our borders is multiplying.

STELLANTIS FLIES TO SOUTH AFRICA

An example of this is the signing of the memorandum of understanding with the Industrial Development Corporation and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (Dtic) of South Africa for the development of a local manufacturing plant of Stellantis. The new structure, it is learned, will be built within a South African special economic zone and the Group intends to complete the entire project by 2025.

The goal is to sell one million vehicles in the Middle Eastern and African markets (70% locally produced). Ebrahim Patel , Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, said: “South Africa is an excellent investment destination, with a significant car manufacturing capacity: we look forward to working closely with Stellantis to enable the 'Company to build a plant that will expand our manufacturing base and provide new jobs locally,'

INVESTMENTS IN INDIANA

Moving to the US, Stellantis will invest $155 million in three plants in Kokomo, Indiana, for the production of new electric drive modules (EDM) that will power electric vehicles that will be assembled in North America in order to achieve the goal to cover 50% of US sales with battery electric vehicles by 2030.

The investments will concern the Indiana Transmission, Kokomo Transmission and Kokomo Casting sites. The gearbox cover will be stamped at the Kokomo Casting Plant and machined at the Kokomo Transmission Plant. Gear machining and final assembly will take place at the Indiana Transmission Plant. The start of production is expected in the third quarter of 2024, after the conversion of the plants. The investment will make it possible to maintain over 265 jobs in the three plants.

The presence in the state of the Midwest is now historic. Since 2020 Stellantis has invested nearly $3.3 billion in Indiana to drive the transition to electrification. This also includes a recently announced $643 million investment to produce a new engine for traditional and PHEV applications, a next-generation eight-speed transmission, and a joint venture gigafactory with Samsung SDI.

With more than 25 battery electric vehicle (BEV) launches planned in the United States between now and 2030, Kokomo-manufactured EDMs will be integrated into vehicles based on the STLA Large and STLA Frame platforms. The EDM for Stellantis is a complete solution for electric propulsion and consists of three main components – electric motor, power electronics and transmission – enclosed in a single module in order to offer better performance and range at competitive costs. The new optimized EDM will allow each platform to achieve up to 500 miles (800 kilometers) of range.

INVESTMENTS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Outside of investments for new plants, the group will offer a further 155 million dollars to acquire 14.2% of McEwen Copper, a subsidiary of the Canadian company McEwen Mining, owner of the Los Azules projects in Argentina and Elder Creek in Nevada ( USA). Stellantis aims to become the second largest shareholder together with the giant Rio Tinto.

The Argentine mine is expected to produce 100 thousand tons of cathode copper with a purity of 99.9% per year starting from 2027 and with a reserve capable of guaranteeing operation for at least 33 years.

In view of the energy transition towards electric mobility, share purchase operations of this type are multiplying. We recall those in Vulcan Energy (lithium hydroxide) and in the Australian Element 25 (manganese sulphate) in addition to the supply contracts signed with Controlled Thermal Resources (lithium hydroxide), Gme Resources (cobalt and nickel sulphate) and Terrafame (nickel sulfate).

BUSINESS IN TURKEY

The Stellantis Group then also signed an agreement with the Turkish Koç Holding (Turkey's main investment holding company): the Koç Group is the largest industrial and service group in terms of revenues, exports, number of employees, taxes paid and total capitalization market on the Istanbul Stock Exchange) from a rather extensive scope ranging from the strengthening of the Tofaş joint venture, to the need to review the distribution activities to consolidate the potential of the activities in Turkey.

Under the agreement, Stellantis will assign Tofaş the production of the K0 model of both the medium-sized light commercial vehicle and the general passenger car, designed for five brands, which is expected to start from the beginning of 2025. In addition, current production of the Fiat Doblò will continue until work on the K0 model lines begins in July 2023. Finally, the agreement stipulates that the current Fiat Egea/Tipo project will continue until the end of 2025.

Under this new agreement, Tofaş will acquire the entire share capital of Stellantis Otomotiv Pazarlama AS, the Turkish distribution company of Stellantis Türkiye. As a result, all Stellantis brands available in the country – Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Citroën, DS Automobiles, Jeep, Maserati, Opel and Peugeot – will be distributed by Tofaş.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/dal-sudafrica-allindiana-tutti-gli-investimenti-di-stellantis-sempre-piu-lontana-dallitalia/ on Thu, 09 Mar 2023 15:02:40 +0000.