A black Fiat Siena HLX has become the 250,000 car to roll off the revived production lines at Fiat's Industrial Complex Ferreyra at Córdoba in Argentina, just over a year after the 12-year-old plant which was mothballed in the first half of the decade resumed vehicle production. Having been carefully preserved the Córdoba factory reopened in March last year with very little work needing doing to the lines to recommence building the Siena, operating as a second line to ease pressure on the Betim factory in Brazil.

A black Fiat Siena HLX has become the 250,000 car to roll off the revived production lines at Fiat's Industrial Complex Ferreyra at Córdoba in Argentina, just over a year after the 12-year-old plant which was mothballed in the first half of the decade resumed vehicle production.

The rejuvenated state-of-the-art Industrial Complex Ferreyra is currently producing around 300 cars per day for domestic sale and exporting and it reached a total of 42,602 units in April. The factory has the capacity to turn out 400 cars a day. Production for the first four months of the year is up 347 percent on the same period last year with 2,971 units being built from January to April in 2008 while 13,283 units have been built so far this year. The revival of the plant has also seen a rapid increase in the workforce from 690 employees in 2007 to over 2,000 today.

When the Córdoba factory first opened in 1996 it was one of the most technologically-advanced factories in Latin America and during the late-1990s when the fixed peso-dollar exchange rate provided economic stability the country's car manufacturers were all rushing to boost production dramatically. At the time the plant set new standards in outsourcing, standards that have come to be regarded as normal practice now. Only powertrain, electronics and assembly were then regarded by Fiat as core activities.

"We want to outsource all but the core business that adds value to what we produce," the Plant Manager Massimo Risi said in 1998. "We outsource stamping, even material handling within the plant," he added. Suppliers entered their parts into the final production chain just 90 minutes before they were needed and Fiat built an industrial park one mile away to house the factory's suppliers. Companies then operating in this park included Delphi, Lear and the Fiat Group's Magneti Marelli division. The plant assembled two members of the Project 178 "World Car" family: the Palio (hatchback) alongside the Siena. In 1997 the Palio hit the top of the best-sellers in Argentina and the brand, thanks to the other members of the 'World Car' grouping was the biggest seller on the market.

At it's height in the late 1990s the factory employed 5,000 workers. However the dramatic economic collapse that hit Argentina in 2001-02 saw production reduced to a trickle and the plant was soon mothballed. Having been carefully preserved it reopened in March last year with very little work needing doing to the lines to recommence building the Siena, operating as a second line to ease pressure on the Betim factory in Brazil and also take advantage of lower wages than in Brazil. Plans to build a one-ton pick-up on behalf of India's Tata Motors were recently shelved while the plant also builds engines and transmissions systems, including gearboxes for PSA Peugeot-Citroën. The reopening last year was part of a US$300 investment in Argentina by the Fiat Group with the funds being shared by Fiat Powertrain Technologies and Iveco.

Soon Fiat Auto Argentina will hit another significant milestone as the Fiat Siena FLP HLX which was the 250,000th car off the production lines at the Industrial Complex Ferreyra was also the 1,954,995th vehicle to be built in Argentina by Fiat since manufacturing operations began. Fiat has big ambitions for this factory and now wants to see production raised to 600,000 vehicles a year in 2010. The workforce will rise to 4,600 to accommodate this production increase with the current two shifts being extended to three.