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The QEV consultancy has 15 days to present a financial viability plan that justifies the need to keep the Zona Franca and Montcada factories
The reindustrialization process of nissan enter the baques area. The dissent on the lace of silence and its compatibility with the ‘Hub‘, lead by QEV, in the different lands that the Japanese manufacturer leaves in Catalonia is delaying the last phase of it. The Ministry of Industry, the ‘conselleria’ de Empresa, the unions and Nissan are represented within the reindustrialization commission and to close the map of which companies will remain the factories of Zona Franca, Sant Andreu and Montcada i Reixac must reach a consensus . Consensus, that after the meeting held this Thursday afternoon, which does not exist at the moment. The way out that the parties have found is to give 15 days to QEV to present a feasibility and solvency report that certifies in detail the productions that it intends and that justifies the need to keep the Zona Franca and Montcada land.
The commission is divided into two camps. On one side is the Ministry of Industry, which clearly advocates Silence, the manufacturer of electric motorcycles and who aspires to produce small electric utility vehicles, whoever goes to Montcada. These are particularly coveted pieces of land, as they are the only ones exclusively owned by Nissan and the transfer is easier. And then there are the unions, which advocate giving Montcada -and all its assembly machinery- to the ‘Hub’. This would allow the large Nissan factory, the one in the Free Zone and which is destined for the ‘Hub’, to be able to have higher productions and that is why the unions see this route with better eyes.
Industry prefers to tie Silence, with a “solid” project, according to several sources, and thus diversifies the distribution of land. The alternative for Silence, if it does not land in Montcada, is to share part of the Zona Franca land with the ‘Hub’. An option that was already raised last month in the previous meeting and that displeased, according to different sources, this firm owned by drive. The Generalitat, for its part, prioritizes not losing this investment, although it would also welcome its being located in another space while it remained in Catalonia.
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The divergences of opinions that already appeared in the meeting last month have marked the meeting this Thursday. The fact that the owner of the land in Sant Andreu maintains his intention to withdraw from the reindustrialization process does not help. Here the Generalitat valued a land swap with other locations of similar cadastral value and owned by Incasol. Something that would have been an incentive for the owners who, according to what they alleged, intended to renovate the industrial buildings in order to re-let them in better conditions. However, this route has not prospered, according to sources familiar with the meeting this Thursday.
The process of reindustrialization progresses against the clock and the date of the March 31st is underlined in red. One of the reasons is that the process is advised by the consultant KPMG, which centralizes offers, streamlines meetings and connects interested parties with the parties. And the contract with it, at the moment, expires in April. The unions are also pressing to speed up the process, since the unemployment benefit of the ex-Nissan is being consumed and the longer the ‘hub’ (and Silence) take to install, the longer it will take to start producing and the longer it will take to hire the 1,600 employees that the Japanese manufacturer leaves behind.