･ Investment in new steering systems plant in Mexico
･ International OEMs are placing major orders for thyssenkrupp steering technology
･ Further profitable growth in North American components business with sales increase of 17 percent in fiscal year 2014/15
The industrial and technology group thyssenkrupp is continuing to invest in its automotive components business in North America. The company is building a new steering systems plant in Puebla, Mexico, at a cost of around 70 million euros. Development of the 135,000 square meter site in the north-west of the city is about to begin shortly, with completion scheduled for early 2017. The new plant will produce around 1.4 million electric power-assisted steering systems per year. Production supplies to German and American OEMs are planned from 2018. The new plant will create about 400 new jobs in the coming years.

“In the past year alone we won orders for electric power-assisted steering systems worth more than 6 billion euros. A high proportion of these systems go to customers in the North American automotive market. That’s why we are expanding our production capacities there so as to be able to serve the major model platforms of our customers locally in the future,” explains Dr. Karsten Kroos, CEO of the Components Technology business area at thyssenkrupp. Overall, the order books in the automotive component supply business of the Group are well filled. Over 60 percent of the planned revenues in 2020 are already secured by booked customer orders.

On the basis of these orders thyssenkrupp is planning to invest around 500 million euros in its North American components business by 2020, of which roughly half is earmarked for profitable growth in Mexico. Last year the company started up a steering components plant and a new axle systems assembly facility in Puebla. A further major axle assembly plant is currently being built 70 kilometers away in San Jose Chiapa and is scheduled to go into production before the end of this year. Work on the construction of an engine components plant in San Miguel de Allende in the Mexican state of Guanajuato will also start early this year.

Last fiscal year the components division of thyssenkrupp increased its sales in North America by 17 percent year-on-year to around 1.9 billion euros. The NAFTA region is the Group’s most important sales market outside Germany, accounting for some 23 percent of overall sales.

In growing its worldwide components business, thyssenkrupp is increasingly focusing on high-tech systems, manufactured in a global production network to the same production and quality standards to serve customers in all markets. For example, the electric power-assisted steering systems developed by thyssenkrupp are more energy-efficient than conventional hydraulic steering systems, allowing fuel savings of up to half a liter for every hundred kilometers driven depending on vehicle. They are also a prerequisite for electronic driver assistance systems such as park assist, lane assist and autonomous driving. More and more auto manufacturers are turning to this technology, including in the high-volume midsize and compact segments.