Figueruelas is a small village. According to the INE, it does not reach the 1,300 inhabitants, throughout the town (discounted the canteen of the swimming pools) a single bar works and most of its inhabitants lead to neighboring Zaragoza to cover many of the services they need in their day to day. Now the town faces a great logistics challenge: the construction and implementation of the new Catl factory will mobilize 2,000 Chinese operators who (logically) will need a roof.
The question is: where and how to give them that accommodation?
A fact: 2,200 workers. The new battery factory for electric cars in Figueruelas was announced among employment promises, but for the time being the construction and commissioning of the factory will mobilize Chinese operators. Many. Many. The Aragon newspaper He specified a few days ago that between this year and the one that Catl is coming, he plans to transfer Figueruelas to 1,847 Asian professionals. Moreover, the first 274 operators will arrive before 2025.
Other sources go further and talk about the mobilization of around 2,000 operators from the Asian giant to launch the factory. Or even more. A month ago, during an interview with the SER, the mayor of the town, Luis Bertol, revealed that “more than 2,200 workers from China” will move to work in the Aragonese village, located half an hour from Zaragoza.
One question: Where are they going to live? It does not matter if the data of 1,847 worked advanced by the local press or the estimate that Bertol handles. The forecasts of Chinese operators mobilized to shape the future Catl factory are considerable and leave a question: where are they going to live? Or rather, where are they going to stay? The issue is better understood if it is taken into account that in Figueruelas there are hardly 1,270 registered neighbors.
The around 2,000 Chinese operators who will disembark over the coming months to build the new factory that will take from batteries to Stellantis will far exceed the local census and force those responsible for the project to seek accommodation. A complex task. And that they cannot take. The idea is that the factory begins to produce modules already in 2027, so the first contingent of workers would arrive this fall and continue in 2026.
A WARNING: “zero” offer. Bertol says that the multinational wants the accommodation of Chinese operators to be “as close as possible to the factory”, but that raises a challenge: the municipality has land available, but if we talk about housing offer already built things are different. In a recent talk with EFE, precisely about the challenges for its town and neighboring villages, the mayor of Figueruelas acknowledged that the current housing offer is “zero.”
Zaragoza is not far away, but its real estate market is not immune to the tensions experienced by the sector in most capitals and large cities in the country. The offer has been reduced and prices have shot. According to the idealistic portal, over the last year the cost of rentals has increased 10% in the Aragonese capital. If we talk about the sale market, the Price increase is even higher, of 12.8%.
Another figure: 1.5 hectares. At the end of May Herald He revealed that the multinational needs at least 1.5 hectares next to the Figueruelas factory to assemble “a great self -sufficient accommodation” for the hundreds and hundreds of operating workers mobilized from China. Bertol himself has acknowledged that the company has been interested in the availability of land, although, there are no decisions made and other options are handled.
The newspaper He quotes five locations that can host the employees displaced from China: Pedrola, Grisén, Barboles, Alagón and Figueruelas, the option for which his first mayor bets. “I think the most feasible thing is that it is in Figueruelas,” says Bertol, who says that the multinational wants the operators to be as close as possible to the works. To facilitate it, the City Council would have already offered “several land available.” Another challenge (already medium and long term) is where to accommodate or how the thousands of employees who will have the battery factory when it is operational will influence in the housing market.
An idea: prefabricated homes. As is usually the case with all megaprojects with multinationals and millionaire investments, around the new catl factory for Stellantis reigns discretion. That has not prevented news about possible solutions to welcome workers. And one that sounds strongly is the creation of prefabricated houses.
“The little information I have is that they are looking for soils to make some villas,” the mayor of Figueruelas assured. In his opinion, “the solution is to build mobil homes“For workers. Herald Also speak of Bungalós that will be expanded to the rhythm that the contingent of displaced workers does.
From the project environment they guarantee that operators “will not live in barracks” and Spanish and European regulations will be respected. The UGT union already warns that it will be attentive to complying with the minimums on labor legislation. For now and in regard to accommodation, the local press ensures that the factory investors have contacted modular construction firms and housing is being sought for the high positions and technicians in Zaragoza.
A memory: the works of 1982. The arrival of 2,000 Chinese has generated expectation nationwide, but in Figueruelas there are those who see it with relative tranquility. After all there are precedents. Something similar happened for example in the early 80s, when the landing of General Motors was accompanied by technicians from other countries. “Then American, German and even Japanese came,” he recalls in The country a former director of the company.
Images | Swedish Pavilion AT Shanghai Expo 2010 (Flickr) and Figueruelas City Council
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