Nissan's reindustrialization will have to wait until after the summer. This Monday a new step was taken with an agreement in which the Consorci de la Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB) undertakes to publish on the 15th the specifications to carry out the long-awaited tender that should allow the award of the land that now it occupies the factory. It will be awarded to a logistics operator, which in turn will sublet them to both logistics and industrial investors, according to the agreed plan.
The bidding process will last at least three months between the opening of the procedure, the submission of bids and the award decision. In addition, a cumbersome bureaucratic procedure is required with the change of activity licenses, according to sources from the reindustrialization table. To avoid possible challenges or other legal problems, the Consorci has hired the Roca Junyent office as advisers, according to sources from the entity directed by Pere Navarro.
The only investment project that is going to be advanced is that of Silence, which will have a contract directly with the CZFB, independent of the logistics operator that will be chosen by contest. The idea is that it can be installed as early as July 1. This exception has been agreed due to the risk that the motorcycle manufacturer would withdraw its offer due to the changes that the reindustrialization table was introducing in its project. Silence first applied to occupy the Nissan factory in Montcada i Reixac, but in the end that space has been reserved for the so-called decarbonisation hub headed by QEV. Silence agreed to change to the Free Zone, but rejected further delays.
Unlike Silence, the QEV hub needs a logistics partner to help finance its project. Its promoters are also opting for aid from the Perte (Strategic Projects for Economic Recovery and Transformation) with a project to invest 350 million euros in which 18 companies participate. In principle, it is the largest industrial proposal to replace Nissan, although doubts remain about its implementation.
Nissan is also going to maintain a technical center in the Free Zone, but in any case, it will be the logistics sector that will play the most important role.
"The path is already clear," said Raül Blanco, general director of Industry and SMEs, who asked Nissan to make an effort to "accelerate" the pending procedures, just as the administrations and unions are doing.
