By Francico J. Moreno Muruve. President of the Federation of Metal Entrepreneurs of Seville (Fedeme)
The latest events around Airbus, following the statements of its president Alberto Gutierrez, forecasting industrial and labor readjustments in the Andalusian plants of the company as a result of poor performance in its military division and the slowdown in the production of components for the Boing 737 MAX, as well as the announcement of the loss of the macro contract of the 8×8 battle tanks by Santa Bárbara Sistemas, have raised the alarm about the future of two important industries in our region: aerospace and defense.
It is clear that the good health of two large tractor companies such as Airbus and Santa Barbara will directly influence the auxiliary industry that revolves around it, hence the importance of greater integration between both parties and that the industry is counted on auxiliary when preparing offers and projects. Without neglecting the need to join efforts to enter new markets and the search and acquisition of new projects and business lines that allow, in turn, diversify excessive dependence on a single client.
We have a strong, competitive and more prepared auxiliary industry than ever. This has taken us years of work and it would be an enormous irresponsibility to ruin all this, instead of planning realistic alternatives that allow us to take flight. Alternatives that go through nurturing our workload industry, through the compensation, in the case of Airbus, of military programs for civilian programs for our plants, such as the A320 NEO, the A321 NEO or the A 321 XLR, whose Commercial figures are at maximum. The production of commercial airplanes will grow by 31% in 2020 according to Deloitte in its latest 2020 global aerospace and defense industry outlook study, where an estimate of production close to 40,000 units in the next two decades is collected, thanks to the two large manufacturers, Airbus and Boing, will step on the accelerator to secure its position in markets such as Asia. These good data have to be reflected in Andalusia and this is, therefore, one of the claims that we will defend from FEDEME on behalf of the auxiliary industry we represent.
In the case of Santa Barbara, we already warned from our Federation of the damage that would represent that the investment linked to the 8×8 VCR program could leave Spain in case this contract was finally assigned to a foreign company. In this sense, the Junta de Andalucía must exert pressure and paddle in favor of recovering the project that was going to involve an oxygen balloon for the Sevillian defense industry. In short, to be able to attract workload for our industry, that excellence and professionalism will put our companies.