At the end of December 2022, the Stellantis factory in Madrid was forced to close the third shift due to a shortage of components, some six months after this shift was introduced to meet demand. As the component shortage gradually eases, management is preparing to reopen this team as early as September.
This announcement, which is not yet official, will allow the return of 300 people who were made redundant when the decision was taken to close this third production team. It will also allow the Madrid plant to resume production, since the three teams will produce an additional 15,000 units over the course of the year, which should have a significant impact on the C4's sales figures, which are actually just registration figures.
In fact, after the return of the third team, which should take place by September, the total production of the Madrid plant could exceed 100,000 units over the year, compared to 81,313 units produced in 2022, which, despite the difficulties related to the lack of components, was the best year for the plant since 2016.
The third team of the Madrid plant, the night one, had opened in June 2022, but only ran for 6 months before the decision was made to stop it due to the lack of components. It would return at the end of the 2023 summer holidays and should resume a comparable production rate, namely 5 to 8 hours per day, depending on demand for the C4 and C4 X produced at the plant.
The return of the third production team to the Madrid plant is therefore very good news for Citroën and for sales of the C4 and C4 X, for which demand seems to be strong enough for this third team to return, especially since, if confirmed, it also signals that the shortage of components is indeed close to being eliminated.
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