Siemens became officially established in Spain in 1895 when Siemens & Halske opened its first Representative Office, with responsibility for the entire Iberian Peninsula, in Madrid. Fifteen years later, Siemens-Schuckertwerke acquired Industria Eléctrica S.A. and, with it, the company’s machine factory in Cornellá near Barcelona. Founded by Catalonian industrialist Lluis Muntadas y Rovira in Barcelona in 1897, the plant, which manufactured electrical machinery and equipment, was considered to be the most important and productive facility of its type in the country. In the following years, Siemens expanded the factory, which produced motors, generators and transformers for the Spanish market as well as for export.

With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the facility was cut off from Siemens’ Berlin headquarters. However, because of Spain’s neutrality, Siemens Schuckert-Industria Eléctrica, to which the Cornellá factory belonged, actually profited from the war. In 1919, demand rose sharply. In 1923, the facility’s portfolio was expanded to include high- and low-voltage switch gear, electricity and water meters, locking devices for railway switches, water heaters and irons. When King Alfonso XIII visited the factory in 1925, it occupied an area of 50,000 square meters.

The 1940s and 1950s were a time of severe economic crisis in Spain due to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), political isolation after World War II and the country’s own protectionist policies. The crisis was only overcome through major economic reforms. The end of the 1950s were, accordingly, the beginning of a heyday for the Cornellá factory: it delivered its two-millionth meter in 1966 and its one-millionth motor in 1969. The factory was also made a major contribution to Spain’s dramatic economic development by supplying transformers, generators and other large machines. With over 2,500 employees, Cornellá was one of Siemens’ largest manufacturing facilities outside Germany in the 1970s.  

To meet new market conditions during the so-called “transición” – the shift from Francoism to western-style parliamentary democracy that took place in Spain between 1976 and 1982 – plant capacities were adjusted and production streamlined. As a result of these measures, the production of transformers, thermal relays and medium-voltage switches and circuit breakers, for example, was discontinued.   

In 1985, the factory celebrated its 75th anniversary. A year before – with a view to maintaining the location’s international competitiveness – major investments had been made to upgrade the plant’s machinery and systems. And with success: 490 machines – including motors and generators – with a total capacity of 135,000 kilowatts were subsequently produced for the Trillo nuclear power plant. The mid-1980s also saw the delivery of the two largest motors ever manufactured at the Cornellá location. The motors powered rolling mills for customers Altos Hornos de Vizcaya and ACERINOX.

Since the turn of the millennium, the Cornellá plant has become an advanced facility for the manufacture of products for rail systems. There are three product lines: drive motors, converters and railway signaling equipment. Cornellá also manufactures electrical and electronic drives for streetcars, subways and regional trains as well as locomotives, mainline trains and high-speed trains for delivery to all five continents. In addition, the location serves as a logistics center for the Madrid-Saragossa-Barcelona high-speed rail link.

Further reading

Javier Loscertales, Deutsche Investitionen in Spanien 1870–1920, Stuttgart 2002.

 

August 5, 2010 | Sabine Dittler