Mexico – Costing around €70m, ($76m) the facility to manufacture steering systems will cover 135,000 sq.m and have a capacity of 1.4m units per year. Construction is expected to be completed by early 2017 and supplies to American and German OEMs will begin in 2018. ThyssenKrupp says the new plant will generate 400 jobs in the coming years.
According to Karsten Kroos, CEO of the Components Technology division of ThyssenKrupp, a large proportion of the company’s annual sales of electric power-assisted steering systems originate in North America. “That’s why we are expanding our production capacities there, so as to be able to serve the major model platforms of our customers locally in the future.”
Last year, electric power-assisted steering systems sales exceeded €6 billion. Kroos added that, “Over 60% of the planned revenues in 2020 are already secured by booked customer orders.” On the basis of these orders, the company has decided to invest €500m in its North American components business by 2020, half in Mexico.
ThyssenKrupp has already established a steering components plant and an axle systems assembly facility in Puebla, while another axle factory is currently being built at San José Chiapa in the same state, with the start of production due by the end of 2016. The company will also start constructing an engine components plant at San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, early this year.