CNH Industrial’s plant in St Valentin, Austria, built more than 10,000 tractors during 2022. The feat, which hasn’t been achieved for 10 years, was reached despite supply chain issues affecting component availability.
St Valentin is home to Steyr tractors, but also well known for the production of Case IH models. The 10,000th tractor was a 300hp Steyr 6300 Terrus CVT, the largest in the brand’s range, that left the production line in the week before Christmas.
The plant produces tractors from 100hp to 300hp, made from about 14,500 parts from more than 420 global suppliers. Each tractor takes about 40 hours to build, with another one leaving the line every 10 minutes.
With 6,400 different specifications, it’s rare that any two tractors are the same. Recent developments at the 170,000 square metre plant have included a major investment in a new paint facility. In 2022, the factory received the BGF (Workplace Health Promotion) seal of quality for the third time, acknowledging the wide variety of activities that have been put in place to promote employee health.
“Given the challenges the industry is facing, we’re delighted to have produced 10,000 tractors during the past year,” St Valentin plant manager Hannes Woegerbauer said. “Issues such as component supply problems and the need to protect the workforce from coronavirus could have had a significant impact on production, but as a team we worked to overcome the hurdles and meet customer demand.”
CNH’s vice president for global tractor product management and managing director of CNH Industrial Austria, Christian Huber, said it was appropriate that the 10,000th tractor to leave the St Valentin production line during 2022 should be the top model in the flagship Steyr range.
“It’s a clear illustration of farmers’ growing needs for premium levels of power and technology as farm equipment efficiency becomes ever more important,” he added. “I think the fact we’ve again broken the 10,000 unit production barrier shows just how much this type of tractor is in demand as farms grow larger – where smaller units such as the Steyr Profi and Expert continue to make up a large part of our production volume.”
