Investment aims to more than double plant size

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 27, 2004

WEG has reached its production target of a million electric motors per month just as it begins its largest investment in manufacturing to date.

WEG has reached its production target of a million electric motors per month just as it begins its largest investment in manufacturing to date.

The company is to spend more than $500 million to more than double the capacity of its industrial park in Jaragua do Sul, Brazil - already claimed as the largest single manufacturing site in the world - from its present size of 430,000m2 to 868,000m2.

The new investment underlines WEG's determination to become the world's largest manufacturer of low voltage electric motors by 2007, and to achieve a major position as a global supplier of automation products by the end of the decade.

"Our decision to invest $500 million over ten years is unprecedented in today's highly competitive and rapidly changing global climate", said Decio Da Silva, WEG's Chief Executive Officer.

"However, for us it's 'business as usual'.

WEG has always prospered as a result of a consistent growth strategy, building upon 40 years intensive investment in our business - in personnel training, state-of the art manufacturing facilities, quality systems and new technologies - which have brought us outstanding growth worldwide".

"WEG's policy of investing in our own manufacturing facilities is in direct contrast to that of our major competitors, many of whom are moving their production to Asiatic countries.

We think that this policy is short sighted and prefer to keep all manufacturing issues from design to production under our own close control.

It's a strategy that's difficult to argue against when our latest trading statement shows a 28% increase in turnover, up $150 million from $550 million in 2002, to $700 million in 2003.

Furthermore, this increase has been achieved against a backdrop of global trading conditions that are still quite difficult and unpredictable".

The focus of the latest investment is a new Plant 2, which is being built immediately adjacent to the existing Plant 2 on the Industrial Park at Jaragua do Sul.

The new plant will take ten years to complete and provide an additional 438,000m2 of manufacturing space, 60% of which will be devoted to the production of LV electric motors for export.

The plant will house such facilities as aluminium die-casting, fabrication, wire drawing, winding, casting, machining and control panel and circuit breaker manufacturing.

Even without the new facilities, WEG is manufacturing one million motors a month consistently, over 75% of which are for industrial applications.

WEG is active in all market sectors, domestic, industrial LV, MV and HV, a factor that has enabled large sales increases to be achieved in target markets such as the USA, Europe and Asia.

Also key to this success is a range that includes over 30,000 different products and a design and development service that provides four prototype motors each day to meet customer needs right across the world.