Volvo cancels the huge investment it was going to make in Sunsunsundegui, Alsasua
- In May 2023, it was announced that the multinational Volvo was going to make a major investment in the Sakana bus company in Navarra. However, the two companies claim that the agreement has been broken.
The pre-agreement was announced in May last year and signed by Volvo and Sunsunsundegui in October last year. According to the agreement signed, a body of 420 buses per year for Volvo was to be built in the Sakana and a total of about 800 would be produced on the plant. In April 2024, the production of the first chassis began.
The news was unexpected, among other things, because last May the leaders of the Volvo met in the Palacio de Navarra with the President of the Government of Navarra, María Chivite, and the advisor Mikel Irujo. Among the trade unions, UGT leads the company and its head of industry, Lorenzo Ríos, also wrote in an opinion article last December: "Parliamentary support and financial support show the strength of this project, and that's an opportunity for the company and for the community as a whole."
Financial difficulties
According to the Diario de Navarra, Volvo has confirmed the cessation of the operation and has put the major investments in money and the time required by the project at the heart of the reasons. That does not make the partnership project viable.
Counsellor Mikel Irujo has also explained in the same direction, having talked to the leaders of Sunsundegui this week. Irujo explained that the financial situation of Volvo is complicated and that, given the investment capacity of the company, the production of the bodies of 9,700 and 9,900 buses has been halted.
Sunsunsundegui and Volvo have announced that, despite the paralysis of this project, cooperation between the two will continue. The company of Alsasua had problems in the assembly chain in 2023 and in the first months of 2024, but they were already repaired, according to News Journal, and currently produce six bus chassis a week.
EUR 57 million in loans
The financial difficulties are not, however, new in Sunsunsundegui. The public company Sodena has granted loans of EUR 49 million in recent years, the last six years last April, expressly authorised by the Parliament of Navarra. Spanish public society Cofides, for its part, has lent it more than EUR 9 million in loans with loans.
Sunsunsundegi, founded in 1944 in Irun and transferred to Altsasu in 1956, currently has about 450 workers – another 400 with a failed deal that was expected – and was in great trouble in the first decade of this century. Accordingly, as explained in Wikipedia, in 2009 the Government of Navarra assumed the management of the plant through Sodena. In 2012, the company's management assumed half of the capital (51%) and the other half (49%).
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