Alstom is bringing the Santa Perpètua plant to full capacity for the third consecutive year.

Those responsible for Alstom's Santa Perpètua plant acknowledge that one of the biggest headaches is where to store all the trains and trams they produce until they are delivered to the customer. For the third consecutive year, the French multinational's factory in Catalonia has accumulated orders until reaching full capacity.

All lines have been operating at full capacity in recent months, a new test facility has been built, and a logistics warehouse has been moved to La Llagosta to gain industrial space. In addition , the foundation stone for the new maintenance workshop for the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat (FGC) airport shuttle train has just been laid on adjacent land.

The constant activity at the Santa Perpètua plant has led Alstom's Spanish division to close for the third consecutive year with sales of around €800 million—€809 million this past year—and an order book exceeding €4.2 billion. These record figures also translate into nearly 3,000 employees in Spain, more than 1,100 of whom are located in Santa Perpètua.

The company's current challenge is to maintain its pace, as several orders close this year. Just a few weeks ago, the last of the 50 trains manufactured for the Barcelona metro was delivered, and orders for the Casablanca tram, the Santo Domingo metro, and the Singapore metro will also be completed this year. "It has been a period of growth that now needs to be consolidated," says Leopoldo Maestu, CEO of Alstom in Spain and Portugal.

The mega-contract for Renfe's new Rodalies trains and the FGC airport shuttle train guarantee more than 50% of the factory's workload for the next six years, but that's not enough. "Our concern now is attracting new projects to maintain stability," Maestu acknowledges.

To this end, they have identified various business opportunities both nationally and internationally. Key to this is the contract for 117 regional and commuter trains for CP (Portuguese Renfe), which is pending signature due to a contested tender. When it is unblocked, the first trains will depart from Santa Perpètua, and then a factory will be built in Matosinhos, near Porto.

Closer still are three local orders for which Alstom has high expectations: the Barcelona metro trains that the Generalitat will put out to tender this month, the FGC trains that will be used to redesign the Llobregat-Anoia line when the infrastructure is extended from Plaça Espanya to Gràcia, and the new trams that will be needed to serve the Trambaix and Trambesòs connections along Diagonal, which will also run on Alstom's own underground catenary technology .