TAeropolis – a greenfield business park on the doorstep of Seville’s main aircraft plant – is key to Andalucia’s ambition to become a centre of European aerospace
The ghost’s words to Kevin Costner, in the baseball movie Field of Dreams – “If you build it, they will come” – could be the thinking behind Aeropolis, a 580,000m2 (6.2 million ft2) industrial park next to Seville’s San Pablo airport and a symbol of Andalucia’s ambitions to become a cornerstone of Europe’s aerospace industry.
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| One of the main industrial units takes shape at Aeropolis |
Spain’s largest region is keen to diversify its highly agriculture and tourism-reliant economy and capitalise on Airbus Military’s decision to site the final assembly line for the A400M military transporter next to where EADS Casa builds its range of smaller airlifters. Two years ago, with funding from the regional government, construction began to turn land over the road from EADS’s San Pablo facility into a home for more than 100 aerospace enterprises, ranging from tiny technology firms to larger manufacturers, and creating 2,500 jobs. Aeropolis will eventually comprise 30 industrial units, with three office buildings housing design, technology and services businesses. A technology centre for research and design projects will open this year.
Growing interest
So far, three tenants – employing a total of about 700 people – have taken up residence, but Francisco Mencia Morales, who is responsible for aerospace in Andalucia’s industrial development council, says about 25 more are due to move in and interest in the site is growing. He expects about half the occupants to be companies transferring locally, and half to be new to Andalucia. One of the most prominent new arrivals will be Spanish technology giant Indra, which has won the contract to design the identification system and self-protection system for the A400M. It will move a €25 million-turnover ($29.7 million) aerospace division, employing 100 people, to Aeropolis this year.
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| Aeropolis is close to the EADS Casa plant and the new A400M assembly line, to which a connecting road is being built |
With companies such as Indra as “anchors”, it will be easier to attract small and medium-size enterprises (SME), says Mencia Morales, who is also the president of Seville-based structures manufacturer Sacesa. These SMEs will, in turn, find it easier to co-operate, share best practice and market themselves to both local suppliers and the global industry. “They are all in one place, so a large US aerospace buyer can look at Seville and get the idea that there is an industry here. It is a shop window,” he says. There have already been visits by a UK delegation, and a French manufacturer also plans a trip.
The Achilles heel of Andalucian industry has been the weakness of the supplier base, says Mencia Morales. Although CASA had a plant in Seville, and an Airbus facility, in Puerto Real, near Cadiz, for years before the creation of EADS, there have been few independent manufacturers competent enough to cope with large outsourced projects. “The strategy is to strengthen that tier one and attract other tier ones, specialising in structures, avionics and fibres to Andalucia. These tier ones can then manage big work packages and provide subcontracting opportunities,” he says.
Angel Ojeda Aviles also offers a solution to the problem of the region’s fragmented supplier base. His Seville-based business, Agrupacion de Empresas Aeronauticas (AEA), manages work packages on behalf of large manufacturers. A former politician, he describes himself as a “facilitator”, who will help put together consortia of SMEs and then manage projects on behalf of the customer. “These big companies do not have anyone here who can solve their problems,” he says.
Rising output
As an aerospace region, Andalucia has been growing fast. Numbers of aerospace companies tripled between 2003 and 2006 to more than 80, with output increasing from €485 million to €637 million during that time. More than 5,000 people now work in the industry. There is some debate about what proportion of Spain’s overall aerospace revenues come from Andalucia, but Mencia Morales claims it has risen from 13% to 17% in two years (the Madrid region dominates with an over two-thirds share, but Andalucia and the Basque region – see box – vie for second place).
Much of that has been due to the A400M effect and the success of Airbus, with production at the Puerto Real plant rising to meet demand for aircraft. EADS in Spain is responsible for about 15% of the A400M’s systems and equipment, and about 15% of the value of the airframe – including final assembly itself. The Andalucian government believes much of that value is cascading down to local suppliers.
Although final assembly accounts for less than 5% of the value of the A400M, the fact that the line and the delivery centre will be in Seville, is “very important for the image” of the city and local industry, says Carlos Gutierrez Rabanedo, head of the A400M programme. A decision will also be taken this year to confirm that the industrial training centre, which opens in 2008, will also be sited in Seville. “Our expectation is that it will be here,” says Gutierrez Rabanedo.
A new aeronautical engineering course at Seville university will also help meet demand for engineers. The first students will graduate next year. Mencia Morales estimates that there is a shortfall of 200 engineers in Seville alone. A new agreement has been put in place between trade unions, the regional government and EADS to provide apprentice schemes in eight disciplines for 750 young people.
Francisco Vallejo, Andalucia’s minister for innovation, science and enterprise, says that, thanks to a strong relationship between government and industry, Andalucia can build on its 50-year heritage as a centre of aviation in Spain.
“There have been a lot of financial and training initiatives and co-operation is bringing in investment. In some areas the technological base is very high,” he says. “Everything is in place for Andalucia’s aerospace sector to become really powerful.” n
Thanks to Sebastian Sheppard for his help in compiling this report.
MURDO MORRISON / SEVILLE
Source: Flight International
