The President of Aragon recognises the economic sector with the greatest solvency and commitment to logistics Aragon
The President of Aragon today attended the laying of the foundation stone, on the Platea industrial estate, for expansion of the company Ronal Ibérica, manufacturer of aluminium wheels. Its installation on the logistics platform will relieve congestion on the current plant in the Teruel La Paz industrial estate.
Ronal Ibérica, part of the Swiss-based Ronal Group, currently has 480 workers in a 60,000-square-metre plant. The factory’s announcement of investing €50 million will provide for the consolidation of the existing jobs and the creation of 11 new posts. The objective is to expand car wheel production from the current 2.2 million units to 2.6 million, according to Teruel plant managing director Dominik Wiederhold.
The President of Aragon firmly defended the industry as the economic sector with the greatest solvency, capable of generating top quality employment and investing in R&D. Javier Lambán considers it to be “good luck for Teruel” to have a company like Ronal, which arrived 30 years ago and, after recognising the efforts made, he believes there is also a long way to go from the authorities.
In this regard, the commitment has been made with investors to continue to provide favourable environments from the authorities and to strive to achieve the improved railway communications Teruel is calling for, with the aim of developing the great logistics benchmark Aragon aims to be, by combining the efforts of all the platforms in the three provinces. Lambán reminded of the project to connect the Mediterranean corridor with the Atlantic corridor, which would result in benefits to all of Aragon’s companies and in the capacity to become a logistics hub operating on the 70% of GDP which is generated in the country’s north-east quadrant.
The plot on which the plant will be installed occupies an area of 240,000 square metres, which was acquired last year. A cast iron industrial unit, planned to be completed in the first quarter of 2017, will be built on it.
The company’s leaders reminded that production in Teruel has increased by 42% since 2010, meaning that 12,000 wheels leave the Teruel plant each day bound for factories in Spain and Europe.
If 800,000 parts more than now can be manufactured from 2017, it will result in output close to three million wheels or, to put it another way, more than 700,000 cars annually.
Dominik Wiederhold assures that the development of the Teruel factory can be qualified as proof of quality, not only of the end product, but also in terms of efficiency and meeting delivery deadlines, for which he also considers Ronal’s workers to be responsible.
Platea Gestión S. A. tendered the works necessary to provide high-pressure gas and medium voltage electricity supply to the Ronal expansion at €445,686. This is a modification of the project started last summer to develop the logistics/industrial platform lands where the multinational company is building its new facilities.
Included among the anticipated actions is the installation of a pipeline to distribute gas at high pressure, giving continuity to the network already constructed, and the placement of a prefabricated building to house a transformer centre, together with the supply and installation of medium voltage equipment, power equipment, an earthing system, miscellaneous elements for proper operation of these items of equipment and connections to the adjacent high-voltage networks.
These installations will be transferred to the gas and electricity supply companies (Redexis and Endesa respectively).
The initial project, with a budget of €922,719, involved constructing roads and the installation of public lighting and of water supply, sewage and rainwater collection pipes, as well as of electricity, gas and telecommunications supply networks. The modified project will complete the development as regards gas and electricity supply.
Also present at today’s event were the Local Government Ministers of Economy and Industry, Marta Gastón, and of Education and Culture, Mayte Pérez, as well as the mayor of Teruel, Enma Buj. Participating from the company were Yvo Schnarrenberger, Ronal Group CEO, and Dominik Wiederhold, among others.
BACKGROUND:
Ronal Ibérica S.A.U. is a company which has been installed in the La Paz Industrial Estate in Teruel since 1982.
The plant succeeded in celebrating its 30th anniversary because Teruel is strategically located between Spain’s most significant car manufacturers; including VW-Pamplona, Opel-Zaragoza, Ford-Valencia and Seat-Audi-Barcelona.
It started its business in 1982 as an approved supplier to the Opel-Zaragoza plant and achieved Q1 approval from Ford-Valencia a few years later. It is now a supplier to the majority of car manufacturers on the Iberian Peninsula and also exports part of its production to European Union countries such as France and Germany and to other countries in South America.
From its beginnings, with a factory with 40 employees and production of 400,000 wheels/year on an area of 25,000 m2, it now has 480 permanent employees with production of 2,200,000 wheels/year on an area of 60,000 m2, making Ronal Ibérica, S.A.U. the most important company in the Teruel area and one of the most outstanding in the Autonomous Region of Aragon.
