PSA Trnava Plant

History

The 193 hectare Site was chosen in January 2003 and the first stone was laid five months later, on 17 June.

Volume auto-production commenced at the end of May 2006, although the plant’s official opening took place only on 19 October 2006 in a ceremony headed by PSA President Jean-Martin Folz and Slovak prime minister Robert Fico even though it was his predecessor and political rival, the former prime minister Mikuláš Dzurinda who had originally agreed with Peugeot the terms for the plant's construction in Slovakia. Of the €700 million invested, €105 million came in the form of government aid.

On 8 December 2005 the manufacturer announced an additional investment of €357 millions to increase the plant’s annual capacity by 150,000 units in order to produce the forthcoming mini-mpv model known at that stage simply by the internal project designation “A58”. However, on 7 September 2006 it was announced that the expansion project had been “put on hold”, since the group had no overall need for additional auto-production capacity in Europe. Nevertheless, within the originally specified capacity, plans for Trnava to produce the “A58” remained in place. The car went into volume production in the middle of 2008 and was officially presented to the press in July and to the public in September at the Paris Motor Show as the Citroën C3 Picasso, PSA’s answer to the Renault Grand Modus and Opel/Vauxhall Meriva. French C3 Picasso sales started in February 2009 and extended to other European markets during the next few months. The Trnava factory was and in 2012 remains the only plant producing this model.

Between the launch of the Citroën C3 Picasso and 2012 the plant produced the C3 alongside the old Peugeot 207 with production reaching 248,405 in 2013, still some way short of the planned maximum capacity of 300,000 units annually. The manufacturer blamed lack of consumer demand for small cars in key western European markets, and ominously, production was suspended for six days in May 2009 and six more days in June 2009. However, PSA insisted that they would honour existing undertakings not to suspend any of the plant’s 3,000 employees during 2010/11.

In November 2011, a few months more than five years after the first cars were produced at the Trnava plant, it was time to celebrate production of the plant’s 1,000,000th car. It was also in November 2011 that a third model was added to the plant’s line-up, being the two door version of the Peugeot 208. Production of this model is now shared with two major plants in France, at Poissy and Mulhouse, but it did not go unremarked that the plant in Slovakia started production of this important new model some months before the French plants. The investment to production of Peugeot 208 was more than 120 million € in the year 2011.

According to the company data PSA Trnava after overcoming crises in 2009 was steadily increasing production: 2013 by 15.5%, 2014 by 2.7%, 2015 by 19% as follows:

In the 2013 the production of Peugeot 207 was stopped and the majority (2013:184,754 ; 2014:206,562) of cars produced were Peugeot 208.

In March 2015 Slovak media revealed that in Trnava will be produced a new Citroën model with a code name B618, which will be a small SUV in a segment B similar to model C3-XR. French headquarter confirmed this news in April 2015 with total investment of 300 mil. €. On March 15, 2016 was the model revealed in the factory.

Scale and purpose

The plant has a designed capacity to produce 300,000 cars annually, originally intended to employ 3,000 people organised into three shifts, which according to the manufacturer equates to an hourly output of 55 vehicles. The Trnava plant was built to produce the company’s “Platform 1” cars, which are small cars. The first car to be produced in volume was the Peugeot 207 produced initially in October 2006 at a daily rate of 450, with an increase to 800 scheduled in time for Q2, 2007. With the 2013 production the factory was close to its planned capacity with daily production of 1200 cars and 3500 emploees. In 2014 with 3500 emploees and 255,176 cars was a capacity used to 85% including 30 days when it was not producing. General director of the plant Rémi Girardon confirmed in March 2015 a plan to produce third car model (Citroën) with a goal of 360.000 cars in 2017 and therefore from May 2015 hourly output will be increased to 57 to 60 vehicles with new employees. In 2016 there will be introduced the fourth (weekend) shift, so the number of emploee should rise in 2018 to around 4200.

Departments

The plant comprises six principal departments, devoted respectively to Metal forming / presses, Welding based body assembly, painting, final assembly, logistics and quality.

Wage levels

In 2006, shortly after the plant opened, there was much discussion in France of relative wage levels, with reports that the minimum wage at the Trnava factory was €183 per month and the average salary €450, although the salary of an assembly line worker would be only €350. Reference was also made to wages at the nearby Volkswagen plant being 85% lower than those of that company’s German employees. PSA president Jean-Martin Folz played down the question of wage differentials, however, pointing out that Slovakian auto-industry wage levels were likely to rise rapidly, since the area was quickly becoming a European centre of expertise and excellence for auto-makers, with a Volkswagen plant at Bratislava since 1991 and a Kia plant at Žilina, as well as other new auto-plants recently built across the frontier in the Czech Republic by international brands including Hyundai, Škoda and, in partnership with Toyota, by PSA themselves.

In the year 2015 the average monthly wage was €1.331 and wages below €850 will be specially compensated with 13th salary.