Since 28th January Fiat Automóveis has added a third shift at its Brazilian car factory at Betim, in the Minas Gerais region, allowing the huge assembly plant to maintain a constant 24 hour production operation. The new shift comes just as the facility celebrates 30 year of building cars and as it gears up for a wave new models including the Fiat Linea sedan, the Grande Punto hatchback and final facelifted versions of the Palio and its estate version, the Palio Weekend.

And because of this new raised output, Fiat Powertrain Technologies (FPT) has had to increase the amount of engines and transmissions it produces daily in order to fulfill the new higher levels demanded of it.

These change will allow a raise in production at Betim from 2,200 to 2,500 vehicles per day. The number of employees at Betim has also been increased to cope with the new demands. The total number of people working in the plant has risen to 10,200, which means a growth of about 20 percent, including the professional staff hired through 2006, which added around 300 people working exclusively in the engineering and design areas.
 

“Fiat is well prepared to carry out another year of growth and increased production, projecting a future which will see   continuous search for a better pattern of quality required by the market," commented the CEO of Fiat Automóveis Cledorvino Belini, last week. The Brazilian automobile industry lives a new moment which is changing in its level of production capacity, led forward by the sustained and steady growth of the market, which consolidates Brazil's position as a strong, global producer, able to compete against the new big incoming players such as India and China." These words define Belini’s expectations for the carmaker in relation to 2007.

by Claudio Perlini