Its 300,000-unit Slovakia assembly plant won’t open until mid-2006, but PSA/Peugeot-Citroen already plans to expand capacity at Trnava to 500,000 by 2009, supplier sources have told Automotive News Europe.
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Such capacity would create central Europe’s largest assembly plant, well ahead of regional powerhouses such as Volkswagen group’s plants in Mlada Boleslav, Czech Republic, and Bratislava, Slovakia.
PSA’s rapid expansion at Trnava is part of a huge automaker rush to establish plants in central Europe. Between 2004 and 2010, automakers in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Romania will add 1.6 million units of capacity, surging 72% to 3.8 million units from 2.2 million, according to CSM Worldwide and Global Insight.
Suppliers that won Trnava contracts say they will supply parts for the Peugeot 207 small car when the plant opens in mid-2006. But major Tier 1 suppliers are already pitching for systems and modules development work on a vehicle programme due when the plant is expanded. The suppliers declined to identify the project.
“We’re planning to open a new plant [closer to Trnava] for the work there,” said one supplier based in the region.
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By GlobalDataSuppliers said the expansion project will start once the Trnava factory is fully operational in mid-2006. The additional capacity will come on line in 2009, they said. PSA Trnava spokeswoman Zuzana Karhutova said that expansion plans are “not true at the moment.”
Alain Baldeyrou, director general of PSA’s Trnava project, previously has said the French automaker provided for potential expansion, although he specified a maximum of 450,000 cars a year. But PSA believes in large plants. Six of its existing assembly plants in France and Spain have capacities between 400,000 and 488,000, according to the AutoFacts division of consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers.
New capacity at Trnava could increase pressure to close PSA’s UK plant in Ryton. The 180,000-capacity factory has no contract to build anything after production of the Peugeot 206 ends, although PSA says it will keep the plant open until 2010.
PSA is installing production equipment in the €700 million Trnava plant. It is on a 190-hectare site 40km northeast of Bratislava, about 250km southeast of its new Czech joint-venture plant with Toyota in Kolin.
PSA says when all three shifts are working at Trnava, initial capacity will be 300,000 cars annually. Engines and transmissions will be delivered to the factory from western Europe.
