Spanish car manufacturers

REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

MADRID/DETROIT (Reuters) - U.S. automobile maker Ford launched on Thursday the final element of a 2.3 billion euro ($2.6 billion) growth of their businesses in Spain, with what it called the largest ever financial investment in the country's automobile business.

The financial investment consist of an initial 1.1 billion euros established last year, accompanied by another 1.2 billion euros since 2013, Ford stated.

The financial investment in Spanish plant continues a trend of auto production going south in European countries, in which earnings tend to be reduced. Ford sealed a factory in Belgium last year included in a restructuring of their loss-making European operations.

Just as Mexico has actually a thriving engine industry making cars for much of the Americas, its Spanish counterpart is prospering by keeping work prices down and concentrating on markets overseas. Around 80 percent of the Ford plant's production is actually for export.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy went to the Ford plant in eastern region of Valencia on Thursday and said the auto industry had played an integral part in the recuperation associated with Spanish economy. The European Commission features dramatically increased its forecasts for Spanish economic development this year.

The investments will allow Ford to create six different design outlines, up from four at this time, and expand exports to markets outside European countries, including deliveries of Transit Connect compact vans toward usa, a business spokesman said.

Once the expansions are complete, the Valencia plant will have capacity to build 450, 000 vehicles a year. That will make Valencia one of the two largest assembly operations in Ford's global manufacturing system, along with the automaker's factory in Chongqing, China.

Ford uses around 8, 000 men and women at the center, the company said, up from just beneath 5, 000 during the early 2013. Spain's vehicle business, including car components manufacturers which shoot up around production facilities to provide manufacturing lines, developed 26, 800 tasks in 2014, in accordance with Spanish car manufacturers' association ANFAC.

With Spanish unemployment at 24 percent, unions keen to safeguard jobs have actually accepted flexible work practices and income freezes, which and close backlinks to a world-class domestic car components industry have actually helped attract the orders.