The Mercedes-Benz plant in Vitoria has ground to a halt again. And once again, not by its own fault. Last Friday, management had no choice but to cancel the evening shift — there were simply no parts to build vehicles with. The source of the problem turned out to be far beyond the factory walls: logistics let them down. Staff were told plainly — production is being paused due to a supply chain failure, and the plant has no power to fix it.
Three key areas took the hit at once: body assembly, final assembly and paint. The cause — a new bottleneck at the port of Tangier. According to Mercedes-Benz, it paralysed maritime traffic in the Strait of Gibraltar and brought the entire logistics chain crashing down. The cable supplier got hit hardest.
In the plant’s statement, site head Bernd Krottmayer didn’t name names outright, but the hint was unmistakable — he was talking about Kromberg & Schubert, one of the key wiring suppliers. The stoppage affected almost the entire workforce and subcontractors. The only exceptions were tasks tied to the VAN.EA project and jobs that simply couldn’t wait. And that’s no small detail: Mercedes is gearing the site up for its next technological leap, and any pause right now stings especially hard. For Vitoria, this isn’t the first blow lately.
The plant also stopped in February over supply problems. Back then, the cause was bad weather in the Strait of Gibraltar during the winter storm Leonardo. Three companies’ deliveries were hit at once: Kromberg & Schubert, Forvia and Lear. The first handles wiring harnesses, the other two — van seats.
Two days after that shutdown came another incident — this time an IT outage at Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Stuttgart, around 890 miles from the Spanish plant. For Vitoria, it was an unpleasant lesson: a modern factory doesn’t just run on machines and people on the shop floor. It depends on ports, servers, suppliers and routes spanning multiple countries. One failure anywhere — and everything stops.
The situation looks especially worrying with serial launch set for June 12. According to the Spanish press, the event is being prepared on a grand scale — with the head of Mercedes-Benz Vans worldwide, Thomas Klein, attending in person. And the closer that date gets, the more every lost hour costs.
The plant is wired into a complex chain where a single delay over wiring or seats can stop the assembly of an entire vehicle. The auto industry loves to talk about robots, platforms and electrification. But sometimes a billion-euro operation gets shut down not by the technology of the future. Just an ordinary cargo that didn’t leave the port on time.
