Spain and the United States - Real Instituto Elcano

THE US PLAYERS IN SPAIN 55
Ford chose to manufacture its new KA model in the 1990s at its Almussafes
plant rather than at its facilities in Cologne, Germany, and Dagenham, United
Kingdom. Albert Caspers, chairman of Ford Europe, said at the time that the
plant in Spain was chosen because it has “one of the highest productivity levels
in the world and a quality standard on a par with other European factories.” In
2003 Spain began to assemble the Mazda2, the first car to be produced in
Europe by Ford’s 33%-owned Japanese affiliate Mazda, and Almussafes
became the second factory in 2005, after Ford’s Saarlius factory in Germany,
to manufacture the new Focus car.
Ford and General Motors (which arrived in Spain in 1982) produced
871,104 passenger cars between them in 2004 out of a total of 2.4 million, and
their exports accounted for 39% of the total of 1.96 million. 4 The presence of
these and other auto companies led component companies like Arvin Meritor,
Dana Corporation, Johnson Controls and Tenneco Automotive to set up
affiliates in Spain too and spurred the creation of Spanish component
companies, such as Grupo Antolín-Irausa, the world’s largest manufacturer of
ceiling panels for cars and a leading producer of seats, door locks, and
electrical devices for windows. 5 It started in the 1960s near Renault’s assembly
lines and in the 1970s opened facilities near Ford’s plant.
Exhibit 2.11. US Automotive and Component Companies in Spain
Most of the American machinery and supplies companies in Spain
are importers and distributors (see Exhibit 2.12). Among the manufacturers
are Duo-Fast (staples and nails), Flowerserve (fluid pumps), General
Cable (copper, aluminium, fibre optic wire and cable products), Helgeson
4. DaimlerChrysler produced 93,000 vehicles in 2004, but it is excluded from this calculation because it
is not majority US-owned.
5. See pp. 173-176 of The Limits of Convergence, by Mauro Guillén (Princeton University Press, 2001).