The Government and the Generalitat clash over Nissan’s ‘plan B’ while waiting for a response from Great Wall

  • The main candidate to replace Nissan is the Chinese manufacturer Great Wall and the Administration has sent a new offer to retain it

  • The alternative option stresses the relations between the State and the Government, by opening the door to a military armored maintenance company

Goal number 1 to replace Nissan in the Free Zone grounds is still the Chinese car manufacturer Great Wall Motors (GWM). Asians are shedding the daisy of whether they finally invest in Catalonia or go elsewhere and the Administration has moved to retain them. In the afternoon of last Tuesday the Government and the Government of the Generalitat sent a final counterproposal to the management of GWM, together with a demand for a meeting at the highest level by the Administration; as confirmed by different sources familiar with reindustrialization. In the ‘plan A’ all the actors coincide, not so in the ‘plan B’, which this Wednesday has tightened the reindustrialization commission, energized by the consultancy KPGM.

“It is a matter of days”, agree to point out several sources involved in the reindustrialization of Nissan. This Wednesday the Government, the Government, the company and the unions have maintained one to address the alternative plan to the one that until now was the main candidate, GWM. The idea of ​​this ‘plan B’ is to give greater prominence to the collective project of the electromobility ‘hub’, led by QEV Technologies, but to which a new actor has joined in the meeting this Wednesday: a maintenance company of military armored. This is confirmed by sources familiar with the reindustrialization process, who acknowledge that information had circulated in previous tables in this regard but that until this Wednesday the Ministry of Industry has not put it on the table directly.

This new proposal, which would be added to the mobility ‘hub’ projects and would occupy approximately one third of the land that Nissan occupies today in the Free Trade Zone, has strained relations between the Government and the Generalitat. “The Government will not support in any case that a military industry is installed in the lands of the Free Zone that Nissan currently occupies”, said this morning the ‘minister’ of Empresa i Treball, Roger Torrent.

The armored option is named after Tess Defence, a company dedicated to the production of military material (tanks and other similar vehicles) and that last September was assigned by the Government a contract of 1,208 million euros. The idea expressed by the Government this Wednesday is that this company could settle in part of the Free Trade Zone to carry out armored maintenance activities, not manufacturing ones; According to knowledgeable sources. From the Generalitat they close the door to this option and from the Ministry of Industry they do not want to position themselves in this regard.

Nueva oferta and GWM

Armored aside, all parties insist that the carmaker GWM remains the first choice and that is why the Administration has improved its latest offer to attract them to the Free Trade Zone. The effort has been threefold, because in addition to increasing the amount at the level of public aid from both the Government and the Government, Nissan would have agreed to lower the value of the assets that it intends to transfer to GWM and the unions are evaluating the possibility of reducing and adapting their conditions work to the new company.

The “final offer”, according to sources familiar with the process, was sent on the afternoon of this past Tuesday to the GWM negotiators, who in the next few days will have to issue a definitive answer on whether they will keep the Nissan land in the Zone. Free or take your investments elsewhere. According to knowledgeable sources, the amount of aid offered to GWM would exceed 100 million euros, although since Ministry of Industry they do not confirm or deny any figure. “It is a good offer, we have improved the financing instruments, the assets and the rental. It is an option that is still open,” said the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism today. Reyes Maroto.

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In parallel and with the aim of not playing everything to a single card, the reindustrialization commission has agreed this Wednesday to accelerate the ‘plan B’. This consists of giving greater prominence to the electromobility hub project, led by the QEV company. This one, which with GWM in the equation was contemplated to keep the Sant Andreu facilities, would now be located in the Free Trade Zone, with greater production capacity. And the manufacturer of electric motorcycles and other products linked to the new paradigms of mobility, Silence, maintains its position in the Montcada factory.

The ‘plan B’ is followed by a ‘plan C’, which would consist of opening the door of the Free Trade Zone to logistics options. According to knowledgeable sources, behind the land are food companies such as Consum, as well as investment funds such as Merlin Propieties, Goodman Propieties or JLL. This route does not like the Administration and the unions, as it offers fewer opportunities to maintain employment and in worse conditions.

Reference-www.elperiodico.com

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