Hungarian automotive industry: week 41
BYD investment in Komárom, interviews with Thyssenkrupp, BPW, Fémalk, Knorr-Bremse, Mol announces changes to long-term strategy. Let’s recap what week 41 brought in Hungary’s automotive sector.
Manufacturers
Foreign minister Péter Szijjártó announced last week that Chinese BYD will build its first electric bus manufacturing in Europe in Komárom, Hungary, with a HUF 6.2 billion (€20 million) investment, supported with an approx. €3 million state subsidy.
Production is expected to start early next year.
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| Péter Szijjártó (second to right) with representatives of BYD at the announcement |
Suppliers
Last week we published interviews with representatives of various automotive suppliers.
First, we sat down with Marc de Bastos Ecksten, CEO of Thyssenkrupp Presta Hungary Kft., who said it is not uncommon for their German colleagues to turn to Hungarian engineers with their questions.
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| Marc de Bastos Ecksten, CEO of Thyssenkrupp Presta Hungary Kft. |
Success can take shape in many different ways: at BPW-Hungária, celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary this year, it manufested itself in a brand-new development centre.
Product development director Mátyás Andrási and customer relations director Péter Mándli told us about recent developments and career options at BPW, who are market leaders in the manufacture of running gear systems and agricultural machinery.
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| Mátyás Andrási and Péter Mándli of BPW Hungária |
Knorr-Bremse Fékrendszerek Kft. offers development engineer positions for fresh graduates. We interviewed R&D director Péter Frank about which projects newcomers are able to join in. Frank pointed out that the biggest obstacle to development is skills shortage.
Now that we mentioned skills shortage: in an interview with Fémalk Zrt. director Zsolt Szentes and debuty director Tamás Rick we learnt that Fémalk responds to HR challenges by giving employees creative freedom.
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| Fémalk responds to HR chalenges with creative freedom |
Last week, we also took a tour at Thyssenkrupp’s Budapest competence centre, where the biggest challenge is finding solutions to the many thousand challenges of autonomous driving.
Service providers
Last week, Mol announced significant changes to its long-term strategy. Mol targets a gradual increase of the share of non-motor fuel products to above 50% by 2030 (from below 30% currently) through carefully selected investment projects, primarily focused on the petrochemical and chemical value chains.
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| Mol announces revised long-term strategy |
Education
Practing, the practice-oriented training programme at Széchenyi István University of Győr, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
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| Ádám Szteszli of Rába presenting at the conference held on the 20th anniversary of Practing |
The programme offers students an opportunity to gain practical know-how during their placement at various partner companies.
