Japanese Yazaki doubles production in Ovar

  • ECO News
  • 15 October 2021

The Japanese company will invest "tens of millions" in Ovar, where it already employs 2,200 people, to expand production.

Yazaki Saltano will go ahead with an investment plan worth “tens of millions of euros” in Ovar, which foresees expanding its production area from 22,000 to 45,000 square metres “within five to ten years”.

The director of Yazaki in Portugal, Francisco Dias, told ECO that new facilities will be built to support production, such as an external warehouse to free up the industrial area, expand the engineering centre and strengthen the manufacture of components for electric cars, including a regrind and recycling area for the injection of plastic parts with greater capacity.

It is in this unit in the district of Aveiro that Yazaki has concentrated its activity in Portugal since 2008, after the closure of the Gaia factory, which had been the first to produce wiring harnesses in Europe. The Japanese group once employed 8,000 people in the country and today has been reduced to around 2,200, of which 1,700 are in the production area and almost 500 in the engineering hub that supplies design, products and services to the main Japanese, European and North American car manufacturers.

“Although we intend to expand production in Portugal, I don’t expect to increase the number of operators too much because of the automation we are undergoing at the moment. But I also don’t foresee any reduction for the next few years”, points out Francisco Dias. On the other hand, hiring 130 professionals for the designated Porto Technical Centre (PTC) is an immediate priority.

The director of PTC, Marco Ferreira, challenged the European board to bet on a diversification strategy of solutions developed from Ovar, because “today it is easier to relocate engineering services anywhere in the world, with a more competitive cost per hour than in Portugal”. “We also know that having an excellent performance is not enough, so we have to leverage our difference which is the commitment, sense of responsibility, flexibility and resilience characteristic of the Portuguese people,” he added.

The various projects have already been submitted to the municipality, in an investment that will be phased in, but will already be included in the 2022 budget. Francisco Dias says that the Portuguese structure “has been privileged in European investments and wants to attract as many as possible”. Waving the experience, knowledge and added value of the products made in Ovar, he convinced the multinational that “it is better to reconvert Portugal than to open new facilities in other countries”.

“Japanese companies are very loyal and attached to their culture. In Europe, Yazaki started in Portugal 35 years ago and that is something that strikes a chord with the Japanese. The fact that we are still here makes Portugal always in pole position. Now, we have to give the return on investment and also continue to comply with the group”, adds the head of the national factory, which supplies “the entire ‘nervous system’ of a vehicle”, such as the cables that make the electrical connection between the batteries, the steering wheel and the brakes.