BMW Group will invest more than $200 million to construct a 219,000 square foot press shop at its South Carolina plant. The investment includes more than 200 new jobs. The announcement was made by BMW Manufacturing President and CEO Robert Engelhorn at the South Carolina Automotive Summit in Greenville, SC.
The new press shop, which will start production in the summer of 2024, will take raw coils of steel, cut them into blanks, and stamp sheet metal parts for BMW X models. Those components include hang-on parts such as the vehicle’s four doors, fenders, exterior body sides, and lift gate.
“The BMW Group is known worldwide for the outstanding quality produced by its press shops. We are excited to add this new technology to Plant Spartanburg,” said Engelhorn. “This investment reinforces BMW Group’s commitment in the United States and South Carolina. We continue to play a major role in the region’s economic strength as well as workforce development and job training.”
Highly-Skilled Manufacturing Jobs
A state-of-the-art press shop requires manufacturing jobs with advanced-level training. These jobs include tool and die technicians, electrical and mechanical maintenance for automated machinery, and specialized line operators. More than 45 Plant Spartanburg associates are currently training at BMW Group press shops in Leipzig, Germany, and Swindon, UK. These associates also train with partners from the Schuler Group, that manufactures automated servo press lines for all BMW Group plants.
While Schuler will manufacture the automated press line, all tooling for Plant Spartanburg’s press shop will come from BMW tool shops in Eisenach, Munich, and Dingolfing.
Since 1992, the BMW Group has invested nearly $12 billion in its South Carolina factory. BMW Manufacturing is the largest BMW Group plant in the world, producing more than 1,500 vehicles each day and 433,810 vehicles in 2021, a record. The factory has an annual production capacity of up to 450,000 vehicles and employs more than 11,000 people.
SOURCE: BMW Group
