BMW 2014 Annual Report Download - page 33

33 COMBINED MANAGEMENT REPORT
a new, energy-saving strategy to optimise energy manage-
ment. Since 2014, the waste heat from the melting
plant has been fed into the site’s own in-house hot water
system, which means it can be used for heating in win-
ter and cooling in summer.
Global presence strengthened
During the year under report, 48.5 % of the BMW Group’s
vehicles were manufactured abroad. The BMW 5 Series
long-wheelbase Sedan is manufactured at the Dadong
1
plant in China. The 500,000th vehicle was produced at
the plant in March 2014, while at the engine
manufac-
turing plant in Shenyang, the 400,000th 4-cylinder petrol
engine was being produced for the Chinese market. At
the same time, preparations were initiated at the Tiexi1
plant for a new engine manufacturing facility, including
a foundry, to supply local production capacities. It is
due to begin production in 2016. The first BMW 316Li
was manufactured at the Tiexi1 plant in October.
At the Rosslyn manufacturing plant in South Africa,
the BMW Group concluded a contract with the energy
company Bio2Watt (Pty) Ltd. Under its terms, from
2015 onwards some 25 to 30 % of the plant’s electricity
requirements will be generated by a combined heat and
power plant that runs on landfill gas. The biogas used
will be recovered from the treatment of waste .
Almost 350,000 vehicles were manufactured at the
US plant in Spartanburg in 2014 – a new record for the
location. To coincide with the production plant’s 20th
anniversary, in March the BMW Group announced ex-
pansion plans. Its manufacturing capacity is scheduled
to be raised to 450,000 vehicles per year. To date, the
BMW X3, X5, X5 M, X6 and X6 M models have been
manufactured at the competence centre for X vehicles.
Furthermore, production of the BMW X4 commenced
at the site in April. In October, a second painting facility
was also commissioned at the plant.
In July 2014 the construction of a new plant in San Luis
Potosí, Mexico, was announced. The scheduled annual
capacity of this plant is approximately 150,000 units.
This move underpins the BMW Group’s strategic com-
mitment to maintaining a well-balanced global value-
added chain.
At Moses Lake2, Washington (USA), the carbon fibre
manufacturing facility has been enlarged to include a
third production building. It should be ready to begin
operations by the beginning of 2015 and offers additional
capacity for two production lines capable of handling a
total volume of 3,000 tonnes per year.
In a parallel development, the BMW Group has built an
assembly plant in Araquari, Brazil. The first vehicles
were produced at the location in October 2014. The new
production facility will be fully completed in the course
of 2015. The manufacturing infrastructure will then
comprise bodymaking, painting and assembly.
Manu-
facturing capacity is scheduled to reach up to 30,000 vehi-
cles per year. The production portfolio currently com-
prises the BMW 3 Series and the X1. The BMW 1 Series,
the X3 and the MINI Countryman are scheduled to fol-
low in the course of 2015.
At the Group’s various assembly plants, which mostly
serve their regional markets, 52,368 vehicles were
produced overall during the period under report. The
plants are located in Araquari (Brazil), Rayong (Thailand),
Chennai (India), Kaliningrad (Russia), Cairo (Egypt),
Jakarta (Indonesia) and Kulim (Malaysia).
Thirteen years after the relaunching of the MINI brand in
2001, the three-millionth vehicle has meanwhile rolled
off the assembly lines at the Oxford plant. During this
period, two million of the MINI brand cars manufac-
tured in the UK have been exported to over 110 coun-
tries around the world. The British production triangle
comprising the MINI plant in Oxford, the components
plant in Swindon and the engine production facility
in Hams Hall is a key part of the BMW Group’s produc-
tion network. More than
900 units of the MINI are pro-
duced at the Oxford plant per day during peak times.
In order to secure greater capacity for planned growth,
since July the MINI Hatch is also being produced at
the Dutch carmaker VDL Nedcar bv in Born, the
Netherlands, under the terms of a contract with the
BMW Group. These new arrangements enable even
greater flexibility for the BMW Group’s production net-
work worldwide. The MINI models Countryman and
Paceman are already being produced under contract by
Magna Steyr Fahrzeugtechnik (MSF) in Graz, Austria. In
1 Joint venture BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd., Shenyang.
2 Joint operation SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers.